The Confederation of African Football has appointed Moroccan Jalal Jayed as referee for Sunday’s Africa U20 Cup of Nations Group A battle between seven-time champions Nigeria and Senegal at the Cairo International Stadium.
Jayed will be assisted by Tunisian Mohamed Bakir (assistant referee 1), Algerian Hamza Bouzit (assistant referee 2) and Ivorian Clement Franklin Kpan, in the match that will kick off at 7pm Egypt time (6pm Nigeria time), three hours after the tournament opening game between hosts Egypt and Mozambique at the same venue.
While Hussein Jenayah from Tunisia will be the match commissioner, Burundian Jean Claude Birumushahu will serve as referee assessor and Imade El Fahouss from Morocco will be general coordinator.
The Flying Eagles had their first official training session in Cairo on Friday at Jewel Hotel training field as the team gets set for the clash with Senegal.
Nigeria, two-time FIFA World Cup silver-medallists and one-time bronze medallists, will be gunning for an eighth continental title at the finals in Egypt. They play host nation Egypt and Mozambique in other games in Group A.
Only the top four-placed teams at the 12-nation tournament will qualify to represent Africa at this year’s FIFA U20 World Cup finals in Indonesia, 20th May – 11th June.
Meanwhile, the Flying Eagles trained under the supervision of Coach Ladan Bosso and his technical team 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 8:30pm local time (7:30pm Nigerian time).
Belgium -based Ahmed Abdullahi has joined the Flying Eagles’ squad in Cairo. The KAA Gent of Belgium forward arrived in Cairo in the early hours of Friday morning. Abdullahi was part of the team that emerged WAFU B U20 Champions in Niger Republic in May last year.
The nifty forward scored one goal at the regional tournament despite injury ruling him out of the tournament after he suffered head injury during a match with Burkina Faso, and is expected to offer more attacking options upfront to Coach Ladan Bosso.
