THE Confederation of African Football has appointed Sudan’s Mahmood Ali Ismail as the centre referee for Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying clash between Sierra Leone and the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
Ismail will have his compatriot Mohammed Abdallah Ibrahim as assistant referee 1 and Liban Abdourazak Ahmed from Djibouti as assistant referee 2, with Mohamed Diraneh Guedi, also from Djibouti, as the fourth official.
Gambia’s Bakary Jammeh will be the match commissioner while Kokou Djaoupe from Togo will serve as the referee assessor.
The match is scheduled for the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia as there is no standard stadium currently approved by CAF in Sierra Leone.
To prepare for the encounter, all the 23 invited players are now in the Super Eagles camp at the Eko Hotel in Lagos, with Bright Osayi-Samuel the latest arrival.
The Super Eagles top the qualifying Group A standings and are seeking to secure their ticket to the 34th AFCON, scheduled for Cote d’Ivoire early next year, with a game to spare.
Jose Peseiro’s side lead the group with nine points from four matches and will guarantee one of the two tickets if they draw with the Leone Stars, who are third with five points.
Guinea-Bissau are second with seven points and will also qualify if they defeat bottom team Sao Tome and Principe today and Sierra Leone fail to beat Nigeria on Sunday.
The Leone Stars have proved to be difficult opponents for the Super Eagles in recent times.
They pulled off an incredible 4-4 draw after going down 4-0 against the three-time African champions in a 2021 AFCON qualifier in Benin City in November 2020 and forced a 0-0 draw just four days later in Freetown.
When both teams clashed on matchday 1 of the ongoing series at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja last year, Sierra Leone scored first before the Super Eagles netted twice to claim a 2-1 victory.
