Ogunmuyiwa Listed For Beach Soccer World Cup

World football –governing body, FIFA has appointed Nigerian Jelili Ogunmuyiwa to officiate at this summer’s FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup competition taking place in Espinho, Portugal.

Ogunmuyiwa, 36, who officiated the final match of last month’s African Beach Soccer Championship in Seychelles, between Madagascar and Senegal, is among only three Africans in the 24-man list for the global tournament that takes place July 9 -19.

Said Hachim from Madagascar and Tunisian Bessem Boubaker are the other Africans. Four referees were picked from Asia, three from North and Central America, five from South America, one from Oceania and eight from Europe.

Nigeria’s Supersand Eagles narrowly failed to qualify for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, finishing in third place in Seychelles where the top two teams (Madagascar and Senegal) qualified for the finals.

However, Ogunmuyiwa’s appointment does credit to the capacity –building programme of the present NFF, which has sponsored a total of 30 referees (including Ogunmuyiwa) to special training in the United Kingdom over the past five months.

FULL LIST OF REFEREES

AFRICA: Jelili Ogunmuyiwa (Nigeria); Bessem Boubaker (Tunisia); Said Hachim (Madagascar)
ASIA: Turki Al Salehi (Oman); Suhaimi Mat Hassan (Malaysia); Bakhtiyor Namazov (Uzbekistan); Liang Shao (China)
NORTH & CENTRAL AMERICA: Juan Angeles (Dominican Republic); Cesar Echevarria (Puerto Rico); Warner Porras (Costa Rica)
SOUTH AMERICA: Javier Bentancor (Uruguay); Ivo De Morales (Brazil); Gustavo Dominguez (Paraguay); Mariano Romo (Argentina); Alex Valdiviezo (Peru)
OCEANIA: Hugo Pado (Solomon Islands)
EUROPE: Laurynas Arzuolaitis (Lithuania); Sofien Benchabane (France); Roman Borisov (Russia); Ruben Eiriz (Spain); Michael Frey (Switzerland); Ingilab Mammadov (Azerbaijan); Gionni Matticoli (Italy); Antonio Pereira Almeida (Portugal)