The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has made a change to the referee for the second leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-final between Stellenbosch and Simba to be played on Sunday, April 27, 2025.
Initially, the referee scheduled to officiate the match was Amin Omar from Egypt and now the teams will be refereed by Mohamed Maarouf Eid Mansour, who is also from Egypt.
It is not yet known why CAF took the decision to replace Amin Omar, who does not have a good history with Simba in international competitions.
There has been great secrecy in making the change and its announcement by CAF towards the game that carried great emotion and attraction for the countries of South Africa, Tanzania and Africa in general.
Referee Mansour will be assisted by his colleagues from Egypt, namely Mahmoud Abouelregal and Ahmed Ibrahim, who were originally supposed to be assistants, but there is also a change to the reserve referee, who will now be Mahmoud Nagy, also from Egypt.
The referee assessor is Bechir Hassani from Tunisia and the match commissioner is Kelesitse Gilika from Botswana.
There are no changes to the referees in charge of the video assistant referee (VAR) technology, with Mahmoud Ashour and Mahmoud Elbana both from Egypt.
Simba have met referee Mansour twice, the first being as the central referee in a 1-1 draw at home with Asec Mimosas in the group stage of the 2023/2024 African Champions League and the second match as the reserve referee in a 7-0 win over Horoya in the same season.
