{"id":63883,"date":"2025-11-06T17:26:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T17:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment"},"modified":"2025-11-06T18:19:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T18:19:48","slug":"fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment","title":{"rendered":"FIFA Faces Backlash over Appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Controversy has erupted ahead of next week\u2019s crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup playoff between Nigeria and Gabon, following FIFA\u2019s decision to appoint a team of South African match officials for the encounter.<\/p>\n<p>According to UK-based journalist Osasu Obayiuwana, world football\u2019s governing body named Tom Abongile as the centre referee, Zakhele Siwela as the assistant referee, and Akhona Makalima as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for the semifinal clash.<\/p>\n<p>The decision has sparked outrage among Nigerian football stakeholders, who have questioned FIFA\u2019s impartiality, citing concerns over the potential influence of recent political remarks made by South Africa\u2019s Sports Minister, Gayton McKenzie. McKenzie had reportedly expressed hope that Nigeria would fail to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>A senior Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) official, speaking on condition of anonymity, condemned the appointment, calling it \u201cprovocative\u201d and \u201cinsensitive\u201d given the strained football rivalry between both nations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow can FIFA appoint a South African refereeing team for our match after what Gayton McKenzie said about wishing Nigeria would not qualify for the World Cup? South Africa are clearly hostile to us,\u201d the NFF official protested.<\/p>\n<p>The development has since fueled intense debate across Africa, with fans and analysts urging FIFA to reconsider the selection to preserve fairness and credibility in such a high-stakes fixture.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s clash with Gabon is seen as pivotal to the Super Eagles\u2019 qualification hopes for the 2026 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>As anticipation builds, the pressure is now on FIFA to address the growing discontent and ensure that next week\u2019s showdown is decided solely on the pitch \u2014 and not overshadowed by controversy off it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Controversy has erupted ahead of next week\u2019s crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup playoff between Nigeria and Gabon, following FIFA\u2019s decision to appoint a team of South African match officials for the encounter. According to UK-based journalist Osasu Obayiuwana, world football\u2019s governing body named Tom Abongile as the centre referee, Zakhele Siwela as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-63883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"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>FIFA Faces Backlash over Appointment - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Controversy has erupted ahead of next week\u2019s crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup playoff between Nigeria and Gabon, following FI ...\" \/>\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\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FIFA Faces Backlash over Appointment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Controversy has erupted ahead of next week\u2019s crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup playoff between Nigeria and Gabon, following FI ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-06T17:26:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-06T18:19:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1762440473.089517.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1556\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1141\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"FIFA Faces Backlash over Appointment\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-06T17:26:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-06T18:19:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment\"},\"wordCount\":296,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1762440473.089517.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-faces-backlash-over-appointment\",\"name\":\"FIFA Faces Backlash over Appointment - 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