A central referee steeped in experience and professionalism, she caused a sensation at Limbe Omnisports Stadium last Saturday during the Namibia-Tanzania match counting for the second day of Group D due Chan 2020.

The performances of the 40-year-old Ethiopian, who has served as a central referee at the international level for more than 16 years, once again put her in the spotlight. It is this former basketball player and pharmacist by training who was also selected as the central referee of the opening match of the 6th edition of the African Nations Championship (Chan) between Cameroon and Zimbabwe, Saturday January 16. 2021.

Unfortunately at the last minute, she was deprogrammed for health concerns. It was only during the Namibia-Tanzania match counting for the second day of group D of the Total African Nations Championship, scheduled at Limbe Omnisports Stadium last Saturday, that she highlighted all the skills we lend him. The performances of the 40-year-old Ethiopian, who has served as a central referee at the international level for more than 16 years, once again put her in the spotlight.

It is this former basketball player and pharmacist by training who was also selected as the central referee of the opening match of the 6th edition of the African Nations Championship (Chan) between Cameroon and Zimbabwe, Saturday January 16. 2021. Unfortunately at the last minute, she was deprogrammed for health concerns. It was only during the Namibia-Tanzania match counting for the second day of group D of the Total African Nations Championship, scheduled at Limbe Omnisports Stadium last Saturday, that she highlighted all the powers conferred on him in matters of arbitration.

It was therefore with exemplarity and rigor that she fulfilled this heavy mission entrusted to her by the African Football Confederation for this competition on Cameroonian soil. Assisted by Bernadette Kwimbira of Malawi, Mimisen Lyorhe of Nigeria and Cameroonian Carine Ate-zambong Fomo, The Ethiopian lived up to the expectations of observers of the football world. In view of her performances at the African Women’s Football Cup in 2012,2014, and 2016, as well as at the women’s world cup in 2015 in Canada and in 2019 in France, she could only hold the dragee high against the eleven Tanzanians and nami-goods who complied with his decisions without complaint.

With her status as Fifa referee, Lydia Tafesse Abebe is the first female referee in her country to officiate in top-level football matches, especially those of a senior men’s Caf tournament. Caf’s initiative to have the Namibia-Tanzania match run by this experienced and unabashed central referee will be a milestone in the annals of African football. The Ethiopian has also completed many FIFA development stages including two practical training courses in Qatar a few years ago, to familiarize herself with the technology of video referee assistance (Var). On the stadium, as we saw during last Saturday’s meeting in Limbe, she combines a smile, firmness, pedagogy and perfect knowledge of the seventeen laws of the game without shuddering.

It must be said, no one predicted such success for Lidya Tafesse Abebe, the native of the Jimma coffee region in Ethiopia. After a full professional basketball career, she cut the baskets and rebounds against the whistle not on basketball courts, but rather football where she officiates with skill. A lover of human relations, she has succeeded in integrating and winning in the gatherings of continental referees, whether in English-speaking, French-speaking, Swahi-speaking and even Portuguese-speaking environments.