#Sports

Papa Gassama amongst 8 African referees to officiate at FIFA World Cup in Qatar

Apr 7, 2022, 11:58 AM

Gambia’s pride and Africa’s best referee, Bakary Papa Gassama is among eight (8) African referees selected for the FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar.

The three times Africa’s best referee, is joined by Maguette N'diaye (Senegal), Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria), Balmak Tessema (Ethiopia), Redouane Jiyed (Morocco), Janny Sikazwe (Zambia), Victor Gomez (South Africa), and Jean Jacques Ndala (DR Congo).

The world football exhibition is set to kick off on 21st November, 2022 in Doha, Qatar and The Gambia will be excited to see her son at the center of scenery.

Pap became a FIFA referee in 2007. He officiated at the 2012 Olympic tournament, in which he was the fourth official for the gold medal match between Mexico and Brazil. He also served as a referee at the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

In March 2013, FIFA named Gassama as one of the fifty potential referees for the 2014 World Cup. On 15 January 2014, FIFA announced that he would be one of the 25 referees for the tournament. He officiated the third group stage match in group B between the Netherlands and Chile on 23 June 2014. He officiated the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations Final match on 8 February 2015 between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.

On 27 April 2017, Gassama was selected as CAF's sole referee for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. His only match at the competition was the Group A match between Mexico and New Zealand on 21 June 2017.

On 29 March 2018, FIFA announced that he had been selected to officiate some matches at 2018 FIFA World Cup along with Jean-Claude Birumushahu and Marwa Range as assistant referees.