NFF Boss Vows To Deal With Bad Referees In Nigeria

FRANCIS ACHI/Abuja

OKAGOR MOSES CHINEDU

Amaju Melvin Pinnick, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF and newly elected member of CAF Executive has  said that stiffer punishments awaits bad Nigerians referees for their  poor officiating of games in the  Nigeria League.

Pinnick disclosed this to the sporting media in Abuja as he frowned  on the poor decision taken by the match officials involved in the game between Gombe United and Rivers United on match day 17 of the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL played last weekend at the Pantani Stadium, Gombe when the centre referee Agboola Saheed from Osun state disallowed a good goal scored by Rivers United.

“Nigeria is a big African footballing nation and most of the African nations look unto the country for directional leadership in the administration of the game on the continent. It is therefore very sad when Nigeria referees makes poor decisions during the course of a game in the league. Personally to me , the goal scored by Rivers United against Gombe  United was a clean goal , but the referee  cancelled the goal.” Pinnick said.

He also said that the Federation is determined to sanction any referee caught in the poor act of officiating  to influence the outcome of any football game in the Nigeria League, as he stressed that the Joseph Lamptey’s treatment will be given to any referee caught in match manipulations.

” We will not hesitate to punish any Nigeria referees with ban for poor officiating. Nigeria must get it right and the referees must not kill the passion of Nigerians with their poor handling of football games in the league. Many football fans would not like to come to the stadium to watch a game when they know that referees will frustrate the beautiful game with poor officiating” he said.

To this effect, Pinnick revealed that the Federation will be having a meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) soon to chart the way forward and fish out the bad apples that wants to spoil the whole bunch of referees in Nigeria.

” The Federation will be having a meeting with the the executives of NIgeria Referees Association NRA. We must stop this ugly trend in officiating in the league. Nigeria have best of referees in Africa and some of the Nigerian referees can be the worst in the world on a very bad day  of poor officiating and we must fish out  the bad ones out and sanction them accordingly to protect the beautiful game in Nigeria.” he concluded.

It will be recalled that FIFA recently  banned Joseph Lamptey, Ghanaian referee for life for poor officiating of the World Cup qualifying game between South Africa and Senegal and the sledge hammer also descended on Agboola Sarafa, the centre referee in the game between Gombe United and Rivers United when the Referees Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation suspended him for the rest of the 2016/17 season.