Gambia: Papa Gassama to Make Third World Cup Appearance

17 November 2022
The Point (Banjul)
By Arfang M.S. Camara

Gambian and Africa's best referee, Bakary Papa Gassama will be making his third appearance at the FIFA World Cup in a row. Gassama made his first appearance at the World Cup in 2014.

The 43-year-old referee is going to get a hat-trick in the World Cup tournament this weekend after being selected among the six African central referees, 10 assistant referees and two video match officials going to Qatar.

Papa Gassama, who became a FIFA referee in 2007 officiated his first World Cup tournament in Brazil in 2014, before his second in Russia, 2018.

Officiating career

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 2012 and 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, as well as the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

In March 2013, FIFA named Gassama as one of the fifty potential referees for the 2014 World Cup. On 15 January 2014, FIFA announced that he would be one of the 25 referees for the tournament.

His assistants were announced to be Evarist Menkouandé and Felicien Kabanda.

He also officiated the third group stage match in Group B between the Netherlands and Chile on 23 June 2014.

He officiated the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations final on 8th February 2015 between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.

On 27 April 2017, Gassama was selected as CAF's sole referee for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.

His assistants were announced to be Jean Claude Birumushahu (Burundi) and Marwa Range (Kenya), and his video assistant referee was appointed to be Malang Diedhiou (Senegal).

His only match at the competition was the Group A match between Mexico and New Zealand on 21st June 2017.

On 29th March 2018, FIFA announced that he had been selected to officiate some matches at 2018 FIFA World Cup along with Jean-Claude Birumushahu and Marwa Range as assistant referees.

Other African central referees selected for the Qatar World Cup are: Maguette Ndiaye (Senegal), Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria), Victor Gomes (South Africa), Salima Mukansanga (Rwanda) and Janny Sikazwe (Zambia).

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