Djibouti: fresh trouble for the federation
In Djibouti, the football federation (FDF) is rocked by fresh turmoil, this time involving referees.
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Under suspicion of embezzlement and accused of cronyism and favouritism, the Djiboutian Football Federation has been badly tarnished in recent months. While awaiting the results of an audit commissioned by the Ministry of Sports, it is muddling through as best it can with an interim president at the helm, Mohamed Yasin.
Following complaints from men's clubs and women's football officials about dysfunction, two referees, Idriss Abdoulaziz and Charmarke Mohamed, are also pointing to serious operational problems.
Excluded for demanding their "legitimate rights"?
In an official letter addressed to Mohamed Yasin, the two men describe a situation that "compromises not only our professional careers, but also our legitimate rights as trained and qualified referees."
Read also: Djibouti: new affairs at the federation
Believing they have been unfairly kept off the pitch by the central referees' committee "on the pretext that we were not wearing the regulation uniform", they argue that their exclusion stems from "our joint decision to claim our legitimate rights, namely:
- The payment of the match bonuses owed to us
- The reinstatement and clarification of referees' grades, according to our respective skills and performances."
This latest affair illustrates the wrongdoing eating away at Djiboutian football, which can no longer even count on the performances of its national team, knocked out in the first qualifying round of the next Africa Cup of Nations by Liberia (2-0 on aggregate).