The Nigeria Football Federation has congratulated Nigerian match officials involved in the ongoing Morocco 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
The officials, Patience Ndidi Madu and Mimisen Iyorhe Calvin-Onwuka, were commended by the NFF yesterday for their historic feats in their roles at the tournament.
Madu, who also officiated at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year, became the first Nigerian centre referee to handle a WAFCON match using the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), when she took charge of the Group A fixture between Burkina Faso and Uganda on July 8 in Casablanca. She served as fourth official in two other games.
Calvin-Onwuka became the first Nigerian assistant referee in the quarter-finals of a WAFCON that deployed the VAR, when she played that role during the quarter-final clash between South Africa and Tunisia on July 14 in Rabat.
She had earlier been part of the group stage encounters between Togo and Tunisia, and the match between Burkina Faso and Uganda where Madu was referee.
“We congratulate Patience Madu and Mimisen Calvin-Onwuka for their historic outings and we urge them to continue to do Nigeria proud at all matches and tournaments in which they find themselves,” NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said yesterday.
“Both officials have been improving brilliantly in the past years and we commend them for their strong determination to keep improving themselves, self-motivating and performing diligently at a high level.”
In her quarter-final experience, Calvin-Onwuka worked with Salima Mukansanga – the Rwandan official who is widely regarded as the leading woman referee in Africa.
The 33-year old Mukansanga officiated at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup and is one of three women referees who have been shortlisted for the men’s World Cup in Qatar this November and December. She has also officiated at the Olympics and at the CAF Women’s Champions League.
Earlier this year in Cameroon, Mukansanga became the first woman to referee an Africa Cup of Nations match for men.
Calvin-Onwuka is one of the referees shortlisted to officiate at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica scheduled for August 10 to August 28.
