The Confederation of African Football has appointed Moroccan Jalal Jayed as referee for Sunday’s Africa Under-20 Cup of Nations Group A battle between seven-time champions Nigeria and Senegal.
In the match scheduled for the Cairo International Stadium, Jayed will be assisted by Tunisian Mohamed Bakir (assistant referee 1), Algerian Hamza Bouzit (assistant referee 2) and Ivorian Clement Kpan.
The match will kick off at 7 p.m Egypt time (6 p.m Nigeria time), three hours after the tournament’s opening game between hosts Egypt and Mozambique at the same venue.
While Hussein Jenayah from Tunisia will be the match commissioner, Burundian Jean Birumushahu will serve as referee assessor and Imade El Fahouss from Morocco will be the general coordinator.
The Nigerian team, the Flying Eagles, have not lost any match in 16 friendly games including beating Zambia 4-2 in Nigeria before leaving for Morocco.
Nigeria, two-time FIFA World Cup silver-medallists and one-time bronze medallist, will be gunning for an eighth continental title at the finals in Egypt.
They take on host nations Egypt and Mozambique in other games in Group A.
Only the four top-placed teams at the 12-nation tournament will qualify to represent Africa at this year’s FIFA Under-20 World Cup finals in Indonesia from May 20 to June 11.
Meanwhile, the Flying Eagles’ training, which was under the supervision of Head Coach Ladan Bosso and his technical team, was for 90 minutes on Friday.
The session focused on players’ recovery after the trip from Casablanca to Cairo on Friday.
Another session is expected to be held on Saturday evening at 8:30 p.m local time (7:30 p.m Nigeria time).
Meanwhile, Belgium-based Ahmed Abdullahi has joined the Flying Eagles’ squad in Cairo.
The KAA Gent forward arrived in Cairo in the early hours of Friday morning.