Nigeria Vs South Africa: Referee Apologises To Nigeria After South Africa Match

Agency ReporterNovember 18, 2018

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The head referee who officiated the AFCON 2019 qualifying match between Bafana Bafana and Nigeria on Saturday in South Africa – has apologised for the costly mistakes made by officials during the game.

The Gambian football referee identified as Bakary Papa Gassama apologised to the Nigerian team after wrongly denying them two goals due to wrong offside calls, according to a report by OwnGoalNigeria.

Ahmed Musa put through Kelechi Iheanacho who tapped home believing he has given Nigeria the lead but Musa who supplied the pass was judged by the assistant referee as been in an offside position, something which turned out to be wrong after video replays.

In the second half with less than five minutes to go, Musa was once again at the receiving end of another poor referee decision as he was once again flagged offside incorrectly after slotting home what could have given Nigeria all three points.

The game ended 1-1 with Nigeria sealing her passage to next year Africa Cup of Nations but officials of the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) still expressed their unhappiness to Gassama over the poor decision which cost Nigeria a win.

Gassama admitted the error and even went a step further by sending his apologies to Musa over the incident although he admitted that such errors are sometimes unavoidable particularly due to the non-availability of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) .