The General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Dr. Mohammed Sanusi has charged football Referees’ Assessors to be transparent and dedicated to their role as the watch dogs of football Referees in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
Addressing a cream of NPFL Referees’ Assessors at a three day refresher course at the V I P lounge of Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja, venue of the programme; he congratulated them for being part of the event and appealled to them to live up to the billing.
“The league management has done very well in the repositioning of Nigeria Football League, they have done very well under Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye to also improve on your allowances and therefore we expect that you as Assessors will do everything humanly possible to make sure that your match officials do what is right. We decided that they should take time to educate and test you so that at the end of the day we will have people who we can rely on when taking decisions.
And where match officials after all this, refuse to do what is right, we expect that you will report accordingly. And where you refuse to do what is expected of you, believe you me, we will not hesitate to sanction you. I have always been saying that some of you are referees. I charge all of you don’t fear, l ask you if there has been any of you to assist me please raise your hand. I will not be part to injustice, I am not a party to what is wrong, therefore I will not close my eyes on what is done wrongly”.
Additionally and occasionally, we send secret Assessors. We do that now not because we don’t have confidence in you, it is because we also want to confirm that the choice we made about you is actually correct so that we continue to have that confidence in you. But where we have report from our secret Assessor that is contrary to your report then we will cast a doubt, we will not blacklist you but we will put eagle eyes on you to confirm that contrary report or debunk it.
So we are appealing to you; you are men of timber and caliber. We are not here to teach you your job but to let you know that we appreciate you and please we want you to respect this job. It’s a voluntary job, we can not pay you, but it’s only God that will pay you adequately because what you are doing is something that can take the youths away from the streets.
“When we take part to ensure the league is organized the way it is supposed to be, definitely we will be bringing the better way and manner people should participate, and attracting interests of sponsors and more funds will come into our league and we must perform our own part for it to reach that standard. With this, I am congratulating you. Let me invite the vice president of Nigeria Football Federation to address you. Mohammed Sanusi concluded.
Part of the entourage present was Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye the second vice president of Nigeria Football Federation, who admonished the Referees’ Assessors on the the importance of standard officiating for Nigeria Football League, which will attract higher grade in Africa and sponsorship of the league that will consequently bring more fund to the system.
“The massage of the general secretary was quite elaborate and straight to the point. I can only add that we on our own part, we should fulfill our roles as usual. Elegbeleye said.
When going out for matches, we will not disappoint. Last season we had what I call above average performance of our referees. This time around we want to let the whole Africa know that we can actually do it. They will tell you that the problem with Nigeria Football is officiating, but last season there was massive improvement. Please this time around, let’s find a way to improve on what happened in the last season so that CAF and FIFA can respect Nigeria football. It’s embarrassing that amongst the ten best leagues on the continent of Africa, Nigeria is struggling to be seen. The target should be to be the best league in Africa and it is only you that can make that happen” Hon. Elegbeleye stressed.
SOURCE: ZIGASPORTS