After a serious injury, Coffi Codjia abandoned his professional playing career in 1986, deciding to follow in the footsteps of his father Alfonse, a former international referee. By 1990, he was already plying his trade in Benin's championship, and after five years was working on the international stage.

At club level, his first major game was the final of the 1999 CAF Cup between Etoile du Sahel and WAC Casablanca, followed by the Mamelodi Sundowns-Al Ahly final of the 2001 CAF Champions League.

He is currently taking part in his fourth African qualification campaign for the FIFA World Cup™. Codjia is a record holder amongst the African contingent on several counts: he is one of five African referees to have officiated in two different FIFA World Cup™ tournaments (2002 and 2006), and one of two, alongside Lim Kee Chong of Mauritius, to have taken part in two FIFA Confederations Cup competitions (1999 and 2003).

His CV also boasts two FIFA U-20 World Cup competitions (2001 and 2005) and one FIFA Club World Cup (2007).

Since 2000, he has been a permanent fixture at the finals of the last five editions of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, and was chosen to oversee the 2008 Cameroon-Egypt final. In 2004, he also received a call-up for the AFC Asian Cup.

Codjia, who has a personal trainer with him for every event, was welcomed by a crowd of revellers at Cotonou airport on his return home from the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™.