Even without refereeing a home team match, Mohamed Maarouf will be under pressure this Tuesday. The Egyptian referee will be at the helm of one of – if not the – shock of these round of 16 of the 2025 African Cup of Nations. The 39-year-old official was appointed by CAF to lead the match between Algeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He will be supported by his compatriots Mahmoud Abou El-Regal and Ahmed Hossam Taha along the touchlines, Ameen Omar as fourth referee and Mahmoud Achour on VAR.
Maarouf has already officiated during this CAN. He was on the whistle for Burkina Faso’s victory against Equatorial Guinea in the group stage (2-1). A match marked by three goals after the 80th minute and a red card. The Egyptian is used to high-stakes matches: this season, for example, he operated during two African Champions League matches.
Two Algeria matches
A FIFA referee since 2014, he has already officiated two Fennecs matches during his career. The results are mixed for the Algerians, who lost to Cape Verde in the first in 2018 (3-2), but won more recently in Tunisia (2-0) in 2021 despite seven yellow cards and one expulsion.
However, the Egyptian did not only make people happy when he refereed. In 2022, the Burundi federation filed a complaint against him following a defeat against Senegal (1-0). The Burundians had also sent a letter to the secretary general of CAF to contest the penalty awarded to the Senegalese at the time. “The FFB believes that the referee deliberately distorted the result of the match because he was less than five meters from the action,” the organization wrote.
