Award-winning and top South African match official Victor Gomes is going to officiate at the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar later this year.
The no-nonsense whistleman, who officiated at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan, is one of the eight African referees selected to officiate at the Qatar tournament.
This is going to be the first time Gomes, who officiated in the Africa Cup of Nations final between eventual winners Senegal and Egypt in February this year, officiates at the World Cup tournament. The 39-year-old Gomes from Johannesburg also officiated at the 2015 and 2017 AFCON tournaments.
FIFA has selected 36 referees, 63 assistant referees and 36 VAR officials, who are going to officiate at the tournament.
Controversial Senegalese referee Maguette N’diaye, who handled the Black Stars-Bafana Bafana World Cup qualifier last year, is also among the match officials going to Qatar.
This is also going to be the first time the Senegalese officiates at the FIFA World Cup. Maguette officiated at the 2019 and 2021 AFCON finals. He also officiated at 2019 Under-20 FIFA World Cup held in Poland as well as the 2014 Youth Olympics.
Other African referees going to Qatar are Papa Bakary Gassama (Gambia), Janny Sikazwe (Zambia), Jean Jacques Ndala Ngambo (Democratic Republic of Congo), Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria), Redouane Jiyed (Morocco) and Bamlak Tesssema (Ethiopia).
