Nigeria Referees Association Vows To Eradicate Bad Eggs
The President of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA), Sanni Zubair, on Monday reiterated the body’s commitment to ensure that referees performing below par were flushed out of the country’s domestic leagues.
Zubair made the statement in Lagos against the backdrop of incessant cases of poor officiating by match officials. The 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season is in its 10th match day, but with deafening complaints over poor officiating.
“Aside from the players, a referee has the utmost power to make or mar a match,” Zubair said. “We have put in place several measures to stand as deterrent.”
“We don’t care who the god-father is, once the fact has been established that a referee has erred deliberately, such a person will face the full wrath of the law guiding principles of officiating,” he added.
“Our recent decision to punish some match officials shows that we’re not playing; we will do what we can to ensure that we flush out bad referees and make players have confidence in officiating 100 per cent.”
On November 6th, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) suspended 14 referees in the ongoing NPFL season over poor officiating.
The following referees were suspended – Bawa Buhari, Chukwuka Jahlove, Akinwale Tomiwa, Saeed Abdulaziz, Jimmy Aimugbonrie, Brown Ebenezer, Atuwho Morrison, Imamu Maliki, Sunday Azi and the four match officials involved in a Match day 6 fixture between Sunshine Stars and Abia Warriors.
Furthermore the e video clips of the Match day 5 encounter between Gombe United and Plateau United.as well as week 7 fixture between Bendel Insurance and Remo Stars in Benin where a potential goal of the season scored by a Remo Stars player was controversially disallowed, were viewed.
