Again, CAF snubs Nigerian referees, corruption, poor remuneration, and weak development programmes is responsible
By Abdulgafar Oladimeji
The Confederation of African Football, CAF has released the names of referees that would officiate at the 2024 CAF African Women’s Champions league, that would be hosted in Morocco, no Nigerian referee made the list.
Africa’s football governing body had released the names of the referees that would be on parade in the league , they were drawn from across African countries, non inclusion of referees from Nigeria has stirred up concerns from across sections of Africa’s largest football nation.
The list of referees enlisted to officiate at Africa’s most prestigious women club football competitions consist of 16 referees, 14 assistant referees, and 10 video assistants.
The referees are from Egypt, Burundi, Rwanda, Namibia, Lesotho, Niger, Zambia, Burkina Faso , Guinea, Morocco, , Cameroon, Tunisia, Chad , among others, no referees from Nigeria made the list.
The now banal non enlistment of Nigerian referees to officiate at major regional, continental and global football engagements has continued to ignite worries over the quality of Nigerian referees, despite the rich football history Nigeria parades on the African and global football stages, its refereeing department has continued to enjoy serial snubs from the continental and world football governing bodies over the years.
Keen observers cited poor investments in development programmes for referees, despite the huge monies disbursed by FIFA to the national federations for the purpose of football development , other complainants cited the consistent reports of rampant allegations of corrupt practices been attributed to Nigerian referees, as one of the factors that has continued to hindered the progress of the whistlers from Nigeria.
Checks further reveals that, Nigerian referees are badly remunerated, also the lack of employment amongst the massive youth population has caused their resort to taking up refereeing , while in real sense , refereeing is an adhoc call to duty, in Nigeria, today, it have been converted into full time job by the mass number of those recruited by the Nigerian Football Referees Association. NFRA, who are mostly not gainfully employed as against the set out recruitment standards.
A source privy to the inner situations, who spoke under the conditions of anonymity said ” i challenged the football authorities both NFF and NPFL to come out and tell you how much have they invested in training programmes for our referees, compared to what the federations from those countries like Egypt and Morocco, even Niger republic have invest in the development of their referees.
” for the league , how much do they pay a referee that travelled from Niger state to Port Harcourt, what they pay these referees can not even buy them flight tickets, they travel by road under harsh conditions, though this is not an excuse for corruption, but it makes them vulnerable.
“they officiate matches under dangerous situations, even when they have the courage to do the job, they ended up been beaten blue and black , meaning no security , even if the club is punished through fine, the money ends up somewhere, God knows where, maybe in private pockets or in the air. or not been paid at all , depending on who is your friend at the top”
“yes our referees are not fairing well, but it is the football system that has encouraged what is happening, we need a total overhaul of our system, people should be punished for wrong doings, people should get their entitlements, paddy paddy arrangements around referees developments funds, must stop, manipulation of the process for referees appointment must stop. Then all these complaints will be curbed, the impeccable source said.
The Women’s Champions League will kick off on November 9 to November 23.
Eight teams will be on parade includes, Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa), Aigles de la Medina (Senegal), Edo Queens (Nigeria), AS FAR (Morocco), TP Mazembe (DR Congo), University of Western Cape (South Africa), Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (Ethiopia).
