The referee Commission of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has appointed an Ivoirian panel of referees to officiate Gambia’s group M match day 5 of the 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifiers billed for Saturday June 4, 2016 at the Independence Stadium in Bakau.
Central Referee Denis DEMBELE will be assisted by Marius Donatien TAN and Mamadou Sherif BOGBE, all from Cote D’Ivoire.
Referee Denis Dembélé, born on the 09 September, 1978 got his FIFA batch in 2009 and has been officiating top matches in Africa including World Cup and African National qualifiers.
The latest was on March 25, 2016 when he took charge of Mali’s 1-0 win over Equatorial Guinea in 2017 afcon qualifiers.
Papa Gassama takes up Benin Vs Equatorial Guinea
The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has named Gambia’s and Africa best referee Bakary Papa Gassama as the central referee in the 2017 African Cup of Nations (afcon) qualifiers match between Benin and Equatorial Guinea on Sunday, June 5, 2016 at the Stade de l’Amitié de Kouhounou , Cotonou.
Papa Gassama will be assisted by two other Gambian referees namely Sulayman Sosseh and Omar Darboe.
Bakary Papa Gassama , born 10 February 1979, 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 2012and 2013 African Cup of Nations[ tournaments, as well as the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
In March 2013 FIFA named Bakary Gassama as one of the fifty potential referees at the World Cup 2014. On 15 January 2014 FIFA announced that he would be one of the 25 referees on the tournament.
He officiated the third group stage match in group B between the Netherlands and Chile on 23 June 2014. He officiated the African cup of nations final February 8th, 2015 Ghana vs Ivory Coast.
Gambian Papa Gassama was named 2015 African Referee of the Year, his second in a row, equalling the record held by Algerian Haimoudi Djamel who won in 2012 and 2013.
Story Source: Namory Trawally
