The Confederation of African Football has confirmed the match officials for the upcoming AFCON finals with a major decision taken on controversial Senegalese referee Ndiaye Maguette and a South African referee.
The AFCON finals run January 9 – February 6 in Cameroon in a 24-nation tournament which will be minus Bafana Bafana after they disappointingly failed to qualify.
According to the list of officials released by CAF Maguette will headline the list of Senegalese officials at the tournament.
South Africa will have a single whistle man in Victor Miguel De Freitas Gomes who is amongst the eleven referees who will also have the role of handling VAR.
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The only other local official traveling to Cameroon is assistant referee Zakhele Thusi Granville Siwela.
Of interest to South Africa will be Maguette whose handling of the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifier between The Black Stars and Bafana Bafana was so questionable it forced SAFA to lodge a complaint with FIFA.
The appeal has since been dismissed.
Maguette was not assigned any CAF duties since that game and was not awarded any appointments for the two legs of the CAF Confederation Cup Play-Offs in recent weeks.
He has officiated two games in the Senegalese Ligue 1 so far.
The Senegalese school teacher is amongst the six-candidate referees from the continent for next year's World Cup and will be monitored at the AFCON.
Referees for the AFCON finals have been selected from 22 African countries with Senegal the only one with two officials in Maguette and Issa Sy.
Ismail Elfath has been brought in from the CONCACAF – the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football –
Elfath is a Moroccan-born American referee with a decade-long experience in Major League Soccer and a FIFA referee for the past five years.