Rwanda’s Celestin Ntagungira has been selected to officiate at this year’s Fifa Club World Championship slated for December 7-16 in Yokohama, Japan.The country’s leading assistant referee was picked by the world’s football governing body, Fifa to work along side Evariste Menkouande (Cameroon) and centre referee Coffi Codjia (Benin).In a telephone interview with Times Sport on Sunday, Ntagungira said that he intends to use this opportunity to his advantage to see if he can win a call to officiate at the 2010 CAN and World Cup finals in Angola and South Africa respectively.“This is a great opportunity for me, more especially at a time when our continent is looking forward to hosting the World Cup”.“This is one of the championships that make one better or worse but the good thing from such events is that I learn many things,” Ntagungira said.Ntagungira, 40, who has been refereeing since 1997, took charge of his first international in 2001 but wants more out of the World Club Championship finals. “I don’t have a preference on games, I will handle anything they give me,” he said. Ntagungira is also philosophical about any pressure that he might get from fans in Japan. “A fan might know the laws of the game but all he cares about is winning the game,” he explained. But the soft spoken official is no stranger to controversial decisions having run the line at the final of the African Cup of Nations in 2006 when hosts and eventual winners Egypt were awarded a hotly-disputed penalty in final against Ivory Coast.Ends
