Oba Olusesan writes that football, often referred to as a beautiful game, holds a significant place in the hearts of Nigerians. From the grassroots level to the professional leagues, the sport unites communities and provides a source of joy and pride. Unfortunately, poor refereeing has cast a dark cloud over the Nigerian football league, threatening the spirit of fair play and posing a severe threat to the integrity, development, and credibility of football in the country.
In football, the role of referees extends beyond enforcing rules on the pitch; it significantly shapes the narrative of the game. In some parts of the world, referees contribute to creating a positive sporting environment, fostering growth and development, especially among young players. Unfortunately, poor officiating has become a persistent issue plaguing Nigerian football, affecting both the elite Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) and lower divisions.
With just eight weeks into the new season, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has already announced the suspension of about 14 referees due to subpar officiating, underpinning the dangerous dimension the menace has assumed despite sustained calls for a better performance of the men in the middle.
The officials suspended by the Referees Development Committee/Unit of the NFF include 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 the Matchday 6 fixture between Sunshine Stars and Abia Warriors.
The referees committee explicitly requested video footage of the games in which these NPFL match officials exhibited poor performance, justifying their temporary suspension from the NPFL. Consequently, the NPFL is mandated to provide comprehensive video coverage of the matches in which the affected referees officiated, encompassing three fixtures involving the Niger Tornadoes and two games of Sporting Lagos.
Video clips of the Matchday 5 encounter between Gombe United and Plateau United, as well as the 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 also highlighted by the NFF. The aim is to conduct a thorough evaluation of decisions and performances, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the officials who have been temporarily withdrawn from the league.
While the NFF should be commended for its prompt action to address the escalating issue of poor officiating in the NPFL, it is imperative to highlight the motivation for poor performance and the attendant consequences of the actions of the officials.
The Nigerian league has long assumed the toga of a joke, largely due to maladministration, but the inefficiency and corrupt stance of our Nigerian referees are reflected in the way they are viewed by continental and intercontinental bodies.
The Confederation of African Football recently released the names of referees, assistant referees, and VAR assistants that will officiate at the forthcoming African Cup of Nations slated for Cote d’Ivoire, and no Nigerian is deemed good enough for the assignments despite being one of the biggest football nations on the continent.
This development has been a recurring decimal; Nigeria had just one assistant referee at the 2021 AFCON, and the country presented no single official in the edition before it.
Miffed by the embarrassing development, the Sports Minister, John Enoh, gatecrashed the meeting of referee assessors to charge them with the need to reverse the trend.
Similarly, Faith Irabor, the chairperson of the Referees Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), pledged to uphold the highest standards, encourage referees who demonstrate discipline and professionalism, and punish those with subpar performances. Her committee proved they could work the talk by expelling eight erring referees last February, but despite reassurances, cries of poor officiating have persisted.
Ex-international Friday Elaho said the referees’s actions beget consequences that are dire for the league. He identified diminished quality of play, player safety concerns, an impact on club finances, erosion of fan confidence, and a negative impact on sponsorship as some of the attendant upshots of poor officiating.
“Players and officials invest time, energy, and resources to compete at the highest level. Poor officiating compromises the quality of play, discouraging talented individuals from showcasing their skills because they don’t see a need for it when the officials would compromise the outcome of a match, and this situation can potentially deter sponsors and investors,” he said.
It is instructive to note that poor officiating is not peculiar to Nigerian referees; bad calls have been noticed in many of the big leagues, but while it is difficult to establish money-induced corruption against officials in those climes, evidence abounds on how the performance of the men in the middle in the Nigerian league capitulated to financial inducement.
A majority of clubs in Nigeria are owned by the government, which does not regard them as business entities. Therefore, appointments to the boards were just to settle their cronies. Club chairmen, particularly those that run bigger clubs, are often under a lot of pressure to win games and finish near the top of the league. Because of this, they often employ a variety of methods to ensure they win, including bribing referees and inciting violence.
“We are destroying ourselves,” Calistus Chukwujekwu, a retired FIFA-badged referee and erstwhile chairman of the Nigerian referees’ technical and disciplinary committee of the NFF, said.
“Football is big business all over the world. Here, state governments and politicians get involved in the system, and they use football management to settle their political alignments, and so because they want to satisfy their bosses or masters, they go tell him or her, ‘Oga, we can buy this game; this is how it is done’, and then, if you are not a football person, you won’t see anything wrong with putting money into officiating and then destroying the happiness of others.
Chukwujekwu insisted that the officials are ready to give their best, but the crisis may not stop if club officials are also not discouraged from inducing the referees.
“If I come to your ground as a visiting team and I do not give referees money and the home team doesn’t give money, the referees will be forced to do their job well. So, coaches and managers must do their jobs.
As a coach, if you have solid players who believe in themselves, you don’t need to worry. Referees are human beings; they know what is good and bad, and they like to watch good games. We should stop putting the blame on the referees and stop enticing them with money. If we allow them to do their jobs, then we will all enjoy good officiating and good football. Many of the referees want to grow in their careers; they want to officiate at the CAF / FIFA level. If they continue badly, they won’t get the opportunity to go to the top. Politicians should allow them to be.
Football is a technical thing and needs people with technical knowledge to do the job,” he added.
Corroborating the CAF and FIFA Instructor, Emmanuel Zira, the former Chairman of Adamawa United, added that “officiating is part of football, so we need to raise the quality of officiating in our league. It is a fact that there are good referees and there are bad ones.
“I can only plead with the Referees’Appointment Committee to fish out the referees who are bent on destroying the good ones we have. If club owners make it a collective decision not to give money to referees but to give it to the league managers to increase the package for the referees, then our league will grow.”
Another ex-international, Wasiu Ipaye, said to restore public trust, football authorities must take decisive action against corruption within the referee community. He added that implementing stringent measures, including thorough investigations and sanctions, can serve as a deterrent and foster a culture of integrity.
However, the win-at-home syndrome that has permeated the entire system has led referees to deliberately misconstrue rules in favour of the home team, often as a means of self-preservation. Many of these men have been victims of brutality at the hands of fans just because they were trying to interpret the rules, which didn’t go in favour of the home teams.
A report released by a research and data outfit, STEARS, after the 2017 league season showed that in all of the season’s games, only 5% were won by the away team, with six out of twenty teams failing to secure a single away victory throughout the season. Even the champions, Plateau United, only managed to win two away games but secured victories in seventeen out of their nineteen home games. This pattern of home dominance is not a recent development, as it has persisted over the last 15 years, rendering home teams nearly invincible, and in many cases, these victories are either bought or forced.
Ipaye added that ensuring referees receive adequate remuneration and proper working conditions is crucial, adding that a motivated and well-cared-for referee community is more likely to uphold the principles of fairness and impartiality.
Sam Sodje, a former Super Eagles defender who played his entire club football in England, advocates for a radical approach to referee recruitment, suggesting the inclusion of individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, such as lawyers, doctors, armed forces members, magistrates, and judges. This approach, reminiscent of past practices, aims to bring individuals with integrity into refereeing, reducing their susceptibility to bribery and external influences.
The introduction of technology, such as VAR, can significantly enhance the accuracy of refereeing decisions as it is obtainable in other places, but our correspondent gathered that the installation of a VAR system in a stadium is estimated at $150,000 (about N150million), but it is extremely hard for the NPL to spend at least N1.5 billion to install the facilities at 10 stadiums across the country when the totality of its five-year broadcast right with StarTimes cost a little over N1billion.
