The Zimbabwe Warriors are not concerned much about Benin referee Koffi Codjia, who has been appointed to officiate their 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier against Liberia in Paynesville today.

Codjia is returning from an indefinite suspension handed to him by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) earlier this year. Zimbabwe assistant coach Joey Antipas told Standardsport the Warriors will "play to the whistle" against the Lone Star.

"One thing for sure is that we are playing away and we have got to expect the match officials to be under pressure to make some home town decisions," Antipas said. "What we have told our players is that they need to play to the whistle and not try to think that a player is offside before the referee blows his whistle.

"The players should just respect the referee's decisions and hopefully he will give us a good game." Antipas said since Codjia is coming back from suspension they hoped he would put up a good show. The official from Benin was in the headlines for the wrong reasons earlier this year at the 2010 Afcon tournament in Angola.

CAF suspended Codjia after he took no action against Algerian goalkeeper Fawzi Chaouchi, who appeared to head-butt him in the semi-final of the Africa Cup of Nations. In that ill-tampered match The Desert Foxes ended up losing 4-0 to their bitter rivals Egypt's Pharaohs.

Codjia awarded Egypt a penalty and up stepped Hosni Abd Rabou to take the spot kick. Chaouchi was enraged by the way in which the Egyptian midfielder ran up to the ball, stopped and feigned his spot kick before stroking it easily into the net. Codjia awarded the goal and Chaouchi ran after the referee, grabbing him from behind and turning him around and appeared to butt him.

For such an unsporting conduct Chaouchi only received a yellow card from Codjia. The Warriors can however draw some inspiration from the fact that the last time Codjia officiated their match they ended up on the winning side.

The Benin official was the man in the middle when Zimbabwe beat Angola 2-0 at the National Sports Stadium on March 27 2005 in a Germany 2006 World Cup qualifier. Shingirai Kawondera and Benjani Mwaruwari were on target that afternoon for the Warriors. That night in Angola is the only blemish in Codjia's refereeing career that began way back in 1994.

Before that he was one of Africa's most celebrated match officials. He officiated at the World Cup finals in Korea/Japan and Germany in 2002 and 2006 respectively. He has also refereed at all the Afcon finals since 2002. Codjia's finest moment in his career probably came in 2008 when he was chosen to officiate in the 2008 Afcon final between Cameroon and Egypt in Ghana.

The Benin official did a splendid job in the match in which The Pharaohs beat The Indomitable Lions 1-0 courtesy of a Mohammed Aboutrika goal. The Warriors should note that the Benin official is not "trigger happy" with cards, as he has only shown 87 yellow and four red cards to the visiting team in the 47 international matches he has handled. This gives him an average of 0,09 and 1,19 on the yellow and red cards respectively.