Expect More From NPFL Referees, Says NRA President

The President of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA), Sanni Zubair, has said that football fans should expect fair and improved officiating as the 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) sets to kick-off nationwide.

Zubair, a retired FIFA-badged referee, stated this an interview on Monday in Lagos. He reiterated the association’s commitment to correct and sanction erring match officials.

“Expect lots of upsets, expect lots of away victories. This season will build on the success of the 2022/2023 league season. With immense support from all quarters we’re ready,” Zubair said.

“We’ll achieve more victories this season under the leadership of  the newly formed League Management Company (LMC) and  the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF),” the NRA President added.

“For the past 10 days we’ve been around referees and assessors, getting them reacquainted with the technicalities and new laws of the game.”

“We are aware of human error, with such errors we can only correct and hope such mistake doesn’t reoccur again. But when it’s obvious then the appropriate sanctions well be meted out,” Zubair said.

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The NRA President said that moving from different levels and dedication was key to Nigerian referees attaining greater heights in their careers.

“There are procedures, nothing comes just once. You know we have three tiers of the league NNL and others, the same thing with the referees’ category,” Zubair added.

“From national, you move on to CAF and from there to FIFA. Gradually we are coming up, now we’ve our referee in U-20 which is a big category. From there now, it’s the elite category.”

The 2023/2024 NPFL season is scheduled to kick off on September 9th, 2023.