The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has selected four referees from the CECAFA region to officiate during TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) Morocco 2022.
Twelve teams will tussle it out in the competition between July2-23rd in Rabat and Casablanca.
Lidya Tafesse Abebe (Ethiopia), who is also among the female referees selected to officiate at the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar is among those selected for the WAFCON 2022. The others are; Rwanda’s Salima Mukansanga, Shamira Nabadda (Uganda) and Suavis Iratunga (Burundi).
The list comprises 16 referees, 16 assistant referees and eight Video Assistant Referees (VAR) from 24 countries.
CAF says the process of picking the match officials for the WAFCON 2022 started a few years ago with 226 women match officials that were evaluated over this period.
Uganda Crested Cranes and Burundi are the two teams from the CECAFA region that qualified to play in the WAFCON 2022.
It is recalled that Lidya is the first African female referee to officiate a senior men’s match at the continent level (CHAN). She was the only woman in the continent of 19 center referees who enforced the laws of the game in the 2020 African Nations Championship in Cameroon, Lidiya has also officiated the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Africa Women Cup of Nations in the past.
Group A: Morocco, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Senegal
Group B: Cameroon, Zambia, Tunisia, Togo
Group C: Nigeria, South Africa, Burundi, Botswana