{"id":95821,"date":"2026-04-11T11:33:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T11:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala"},"modified":"2026-04-11T12:10:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T12:10:53","slug":"7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala","title":{"rendered":"7 African Referees Selected for World Cup 2026 as Ndala"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Fifa has announced the list of African referees selected for the 2026 Fifa World Cup, with seven officials making the final cut.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The selected referees are Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria), Amin Mohamed (Egypt), Pierre Atcho (Gabon), Jalal Jayed (Morocco), Dahane Beida (Mauritania), Tom Abongile (South Africa), and Omar Artan (Somalia).<\/p>\n<p>Notably absent from the list is Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala, who will not officiate at the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Ndala was among Africa\u2019s top performers at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, where he handled both the opening match and the final.<\/p>\n<p>Senegal\u2019s Issa Sy has also been left out. The referee was recently involved in controversy during a Caf Champions League match between Al Ahly and Espe\u0301rance Sportive de Tunis. Ghanaian referee Daniel Laryea also failed to make the final list.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Fifa has announced the list of African referees selected for the 2026 Fifa World Cup, with seven officials making the final cut. The selected referees are Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria), Amin Mohamed (Egypt), Pierre Atcho (Gabon), Jalal Jayed (Morocco), Dahane Beida (Mauritania), Tom Abongile (South Africa), and Omar Artan (Somalia). Notably absent from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-95821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>7 African Referees Selected for World Cup 2026 as Ndala - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fifa has announced the list of African referees selected for the 2026 Fifa World Cup, with seven officials making the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"7 African Referees Selected for World Cup 2026 as Ndala\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fifa has announced the list of African referees selected for the 2026 Fifa World Cup, with seven officials making the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-11T11:33:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-11T12:10:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/sm_1775896778.457928.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"581\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"7 African Referees Selected for World Cup 2026 as Ndala\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-11T11:33:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-11T12:10:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala\"},\"wordCount\":152,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/sm_1775896778.457928.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/7-african-referees-selected-for-world-cup-2026-as-ndala\",\"name\":\"7 African Referees Selected for World Cup 2026 as Ndala - 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