Monrovia – Abraham Fahnbulleh has been elevated to a FIFA-badged assistant referee, nine years after he joined the Liberia Football Referees Association (LIFRA).
The 28-year-old began his career in 2008 after he completed 10 months of tutorship under FIFA/CAF instructor Idrissa Kaba.
He officiated his first official match under the Sinkor sub-committee of the Liberia Football Association (LFA) in 2009 and officiated first division matches four years later.
Prior to his promotion as a national referee (Class 2013), Fahnbulleh officiated as center and assistant referee in several second division and third division play-off matches.
Fahnbulleh was promoted as county referee (Class C) in 2011, a year after he participated in the 2010 national county sports meet in Buchanan, Grand Bass as a junior referee.
The rising star has participated in several top matches over the years.
He served as assistant referee in two LFA Cup finals, one county meet third place match, one county meet semi-final, a President’s Cup tie and LFA District League final.
Fahnbulleh has obtained certificates from numerous national and international trainings.
He represented Liberia at the high level training for non FIFA referees in Dares Salaam, Tanzania in September 2015.
Fahnbulleh and seven “knights of the whistle” received the prestigious FIFA badge at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium on December 31, 2016.
The match officials passed the mandatory “Cooper test”, an approved fitness test for international referees and will be included on the international panel for 2017.
Liberia’s roster for 2017 FIFA-badged referees has three new comers—assistant referees Fahnbulleh, Sekou Kanneh and center referee Hassan Corneh.
Referees Jerry Yekeh, Isaac Montgomery and George Rogers and assistant referees Elisha Johnson and Johnson Gbartea complete the list.
No explanation was given by Lifra for the omission of center referee Christopher Nylander, assistant referees Joseph Hoff and Francis Sannoh from the list.
Sylvester Worwee, Contributing Writer/ [email protected]