NFF Express Disappointment Over The Poor Performances By Nigerian Referees . As Committee Impose Severe Sanctions On Erring Referees
By Abdulgafar Oladimeji
Nigeria Football Federation, NFF has expressed its dismay over the poor officiating standards been exhibited by Nigeria football referees officiating across the major national leagues .
Nigeria’s football governing body in an communique issued at the end of its Executive Committee meeting held 10th December at the NFF secretariat in FCT Abuja decry the abysmal scorecard of the referees.
The communique made available to sports writers said “following an assessment of the performance of referees handling matches in all the Leagues , Nigeria Premier Football League; Nigeria National League, Nigeria Women Football League and the Nationwide League One, the Executive Committee expressed deep-seated disappointment.
Adding that “ with the scorecard of a great number of the officials, and warned that even sterner measures are on the way to curb the incidence of poor officiating, incompetence, collusion with Club officials and bare-faced manipulation of matches to favour certain teams and interests.” NFF warned.
In an related development , the NFF Referees Committee has imposed sanctions on some referees for indulging in various levels of misconducts.
The Secretary of the NFF Referees Committee, Ameenu Mohammed in a missive made available to journalists said the committee acted in an stern manner to curb the excess of refereeing officials whose whistle verdicts were deemed questionable .
The committee has slammed the erring referees with indefinite suspension barring them from the officiating of all football matches, the affected referees , includes, Anthony Eze (FCT) ,Peter Ogwu (BA) AR1 and Aduba Ngbede (FCT) , Ekpouko Ubong (AK) Ernest Cynthia (OG, Nurah Abdullahi (ZM) Ahmed M. Usman (NG), Michael Adepoju (FCT) .
