South African referee Akhona Makalima is among the 40 match officials that have been selected for the upcoming CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWCON) due to take place in Morocco next month.
The much-anticipated tournament is scheduled to start from 02 July until 23 July 2022 in Rabat and Casablanca.
Rwandan Salima Mukansanga headlines the list having made history at the 2021 men’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) held in Cameroon earlier this year by becoming the first woman to officiate a match at the competition and recently selected as the only women referee from Africa to officiate at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Among some of the household names is Bouchkra Karboubi of Morocco and Carine Atezambong from Cameroon who were also part of the historic 2021 AFCON.
“Africa has made serious leaps in the development of women match officials. This final list compromises of currently the best on the continent. It took us a long time to get here. The several workshops and training camps we held assisted us in getting to the final decision,” stated CAF Director of Refereeing Eddy Maillet.
“It was essential for us to bet on top quality, refereeing being one of the main priorities of CAF. And to fine-tune the last details, we are organizing a preparation course for all the referees of the competition, starting from 25 June 2022 in Rabat.”
The list consists of 16 referees, 16 assistant referees and eight Video Assistant Referee (VAR) from 24 countries following a rigorous process.
FULL LIST OF AWCON MATCH OFFICIALS: https://images.cafonline.com/image/upload/caf-prd/d7f18q54kkxcvwecqwsp.pdf
