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FIFA’s refereeing committee has revealed the list of referees who will officiate the World Cup playoff games between Morocco’s Atlas Lions and the Democratic Republic of Congo scheduled for March 25 and 29.
The South African referee Victor Miguel de Freitas Gomes will officiate the DRC-Morocco first leg of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 playoffs, on March 25 at the Stade des Martyrs in Kinshasa.
FIFA chose Thsu Granville and Souru Phatsoane of Lesotho to assist Gomes and put Helder Martins de Carvalho from Angola as the fourth referee.
French referees François Letexier, Benoit Millot, and Jonathan Nicolas will be in charge of the VAR room.
Meanwhile, Burundian referee Pacifique Ndabihawenimana will officiate the second leg on March 29 in Casablanca. Cameroonian Elvis Noupoue, Burkinabe Tiama Seydou, and Mauritanian Beida Dahana will be the Burundian’s assistants.
Video assistance for the second leg will also be monitored by European referees, with FIFA nominating Tomasz Kwiatkowski and Bartosz Frankowski, both Poles.
Moroccan football fans are anxiously awaiting Morocco’s Bosnian coach Vahid Halilhodzic’s unveiling of the Atlas Lions squad for the much-anticipated World Cup playoffs.
The Moroccan coach has been embroiled in a wave of criticism since the Atlas Lion’s disappointing exit from this year’s African Cup of Nations, with most fans calling for his immediate dismissal or the return of some of the key players the Bonian has excluded from the team.
With Atlas Lions fans hoping for a good performance and a much-needed qualification for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, it remains to be seen whether Halilhodzic will make substantive changes to his AFCON lineup.
For DR Congo, meanwhile, the two-legged confrontation against Morocco is a “historic” opportunity to qualify to the FIFA World Cup. The central African country’s last qualification was in 1974.
According to reports, the Congolese government has promised its national team a million dollars if they defeat the Atlas Lions. Confirming the reports, the Congolese Minister of Sports, Serge Nkonde, stressed that “the government’s ambition [is] to see the country qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.”
