Outrage as FIFA names South African referees for Nigeria’s World Cup playoff match

FIFA has appointed a team of South African match officials for the forthcoming Super Eagles’ World Cup playoff clash against Gabon. 

Nigeria will take on Gabon on November 13 in one of the two semi-finals of the African World Cup playoffs in Morocco.

The winner of the match will face either Congo DR or Cameroon in the final to clinch the sole slot to represent Africa at the intercontinental playoff.

South Africa’s Tom Abongile has been named the centre referee for Nigeria’s semi-final match.

Zakhele Siwela, another South African, will be one of the assistant referees while Akhona Makalima, his compatriot, will be incharge of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for the match.

Hughes Ndjovi of the Benin Republic will be the referee assessor for the match.

The news sparked outrage among Nigerians on social media because Nigeria, South Africa and the Benin Republic were all in Group C of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Nigeria defeated Benin 4-0 on the final day to secure a playoff spot as one of the four best runners-up in the groups.

South Africa finished top of Group C and secured an automatic World Cup ticket. The Bafana Bafana’s qualification chances had earlier suffered a setback when FIFA overturned the team’s win over Lesotho for fielding an ineligible player.

Gayton McKenzie, South Africa’s minister of sports, blamed Nigeria for the FIFA sanction and publicly said he does not want the Eagles to qualify for the World Cup.

Against this backdrop, Nigerians pushed back against the selection of South African referees for the country’s playoff clash.

Suleiman Adebayo, a photo-journalist and an X user popularly known as Pooja, called for the review of the match official list “fast”.

“In fairness and sentiments, South African officials shouldn’t be appointed by CAF to officiate Nigeria vs. Gabon in this WC playoffs in Morocco,” he wrote.

“A sitting minister in South Africa on tape said he doesn’t want Nigeria to qualify for the WC & CAF had to appoint South Africans as the centre ref, AR & VR in a game involving Nigeria? Even the Ref Assessor is from the Benin Republic. CAF should rethink this fast.”

Kappo Ebenezer Sewanu, another X user, called on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to “act” on the situation.

“The sad thing is NFF will not act on this info,” he tweeted.

“Just like they didn’t act when about three counties played their home matches in South Africa putting Nigeria at a demerit whilst SA enjoyed home support throughout the WC campaign. They will pay attention to little details like this.”