THE board of the Nigeria Football Federation has rubber-stamped the decisions of the referees committee headed by Mrs Faith Irabor, including bans for erring officials.
There have been controversial refereeing decisions in the first few matchdays of both the Nigeria Premier Football League and the Nigeria Women’s Football League, and the NFF is clamping down on the culpable officials through bans from the leagues and strong warnings.
The NFF president Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau had pleaded with match officials to be fair and diligent before the season kicked off in January, but blatant disregard for rules and regulations has continued, leading to the sanctions.
In one of the cases, FIFA-badged referee Patience Madu was warned for ‘committing an error of judgement’ after allowing a goal to stand after she had already blown for a penalty in the NPFL match between Wikki Tourists and Niger Tornadoes.
The committee however took a tougher stance on other officials, stopping them from working on NPFL matches henceforth.
The officials stood down from the league include assistant referee Otuwho Morrison and centre referee Abdulrahman Faro for wrongly disallowing legitimate goals.
Morrison was found to have not been properly positioned while wrongly flagging for offside during 3SC’s home match against Kwara United, while Faro disallowed a goal for a non-existent infringement during Rivers United versus Niger Tornadoes in Port Harcourt.
In another case from the week 5 of the NPFL, the three match officials for the Rivers United versus Wikki Tourists game — referee Taiwo David and assistant referees Charles Isua and Akinsanya Segun — have all been suspended from the league.
Also, the referee and assistant referee 1 for the Lobi Stars versus Sunshine Stars fixture, Promise Amadi and Lewis Gwatana, have been stood down from the league.
In the Nigeria Women’s Football League, centre referee Adesola Olufunke has been stood down after she was found to have wrongly disallowed two goals by visitors Delta Queens in a match against Rivers Angels. The committee declared her actions ‘unjustified with the Laws of the Game’.
Other match officials were issued with warnings for their roles in other NWFL games as their actions were not considered severe enough to deserve punishment.
