The referee was against us - Ndidi, Drille join Nigerians to blame referee for AFCON final defeat

Super Eagles and Leicester midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi, and Nigerian singer Johnny Drille have complained about officiating in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final.

Ndidi and Drille were both not pleased with referee Dahane Beida's performance in Nigeria's 2-1 loss to Ivory Coast in the final on February 11, 2024.

Most Nigerians on social media hold the same position as the aforementioned persons as they believe the referee offered them a raw deal.

“Ref na wa o,” Ndidi, who missed out on the AFCOn due to injury tweeted on X.

Drille went blunt stating that “This referee is against us,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Nigeria's head coach José Peseiro has embraced the defeat and acknowledged that Ivory Coast was the better side.

“Côte d'Ivoire was better,” he said after the game.

Ivory Coast came from a goal down to beat Nigeria 2-1 in a fascinating 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium on February 11, 2024.

The win means Ivory Coast avenged their 1-0 defeat to Nigeria in the group stage and became the first nation to host and win the tournament since Egypt in 2006.

Read some comments below

Nigeria ???????? is playing against African and FIFA. The Referee has been awful. He is cheating!

— Dr Dípò Awójídé (@OgbeniDipo) February 11, 2024

CIV deserved the game but it was basically 10 v 13. The + 2 being the fans & ref for CIV & the -1 being the fact that Osimhen wasn't allowed to contest any 50-50 without the ref blowing against hin https://t.co/RH7V6acDkx

— SJ (@316simsim) February 12, 2024

Nigeria played against the entire stadium, the referee and six African countries. How did you expect them to perform. 2-1 was a modest result #AFCON2023

— Tobi • Oladipupo ???? (@Tobi_Olla) February 12, 2024

Shushshhh, u think using home pressure on referee is fair ...if we host AFCON in Nigeria , come win na make see

— ganicus .. OBI MY PRESIDENT (@RichardDike6) February 12, 2024

The referee was very cruel to Us.. only God Like Nigeria ????????

— Habib Abubakar (@Habibabubakar00) February 12, 2024

Kudos to the super eagles for job weldon
Up nigeria for supporting heart towards the match
We made it but referee rob us the game
kudos to everyone

— ????????Ezekiel babatunde???????????????????????? (@Kokotunde) February 12, 2024

ok tell him that since they brought in a compromised referee to officiate the finals and kill the morale of our boys with bad officiating we won't be showing any interest in the next one. We all know Nigeria brought Media hype to that tournament. https://t.co/lFPKAZWpKp

— Tochi Big7 ???? ???? (@tochioutsider) February 12, 2024

I beg make dey warn this referee, any match wey concern Nigeria make hin reject am, Because many things go happen to am. ole

— A-Track ???????? (@fused5) February 12, 2024

@thenff you have to officially petition @FIFAcom not @CAF_Online of the corruption of caf instructed corrupt referee that was 100% agent the Nigeria team. The Caf president his corrupt team should be probed, even the fifa president saw what happened

— Donnazzy (@Donnazzy12) February 12, 2024