Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh, on Wednesday, tasked Nigerian referees to deepen and strengthen their professionalism in order to attract greater participation in FIFA and CAF flagged competitions.
Speaking during his interactive session with the 2024 FIFA Member Association Refereeing Development Course, the minister regretted that Nigerian referees are not playing critical roles in both FIFA and CAF flagged competitions as a result of failure to reach the performance and professional threshold set out by both international bodies.
Describing the situation whereby Nigerian referees are neglected and relegated to the background in the perking order by FIFA and CAF as unacceptable, he said that the current administration would do everything within its powers to reverse this ugly trend.
The Minister stated that his engagement with the referees was part of ongoing efforts by him to get to the root of the problem and proffer solutions to solve the problem.
He recalled that at inception as minister, one of the early engagements that he initiated was to invite referees and critical stakeholders in sports for a parley, when his attention was drawn to the fact that no Nigerian referee was considered qualified enough to officiate in the just concluded CAF flagged African Cup of Nations.
He said, “I thought that this was unacceptable. It was for this reason that I started series of engagements with Referee Associations, the NFF and other critical stakeholders.
"Sadly, even in the next AFCON, no Nigerian referee was listed to participate in officiating duties by CAF. This is a shame. As a country, it is important that we get right things that we are not doing right to change this ugly narrative.”
He challenged the elite referees to raise the bar in terms of their commitment to improving their professionalism adding that government is ready to support and work closely with them to put an end to this neglect.
Responding to the Minister, the lead FIFA Technical Instructor, Mr. Felix Tangwarinma, thanked the Minister for his commitment to the development of Nigerian referees.
He observed that not too long ago, Nigerian referees were doing very well as officials in international competitions but regretted that lack of continuity left a huge gap when they retired. The FIFA Technical Instructor stated that that training was part of ongoing efforts to close the gap.
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He explained that one of the major problems that impacted the relegation of Nigerian referees in FIFA and CAF organised competitions is the fact that presently, there is no Nigerian referee that is certified to officiate with VAR.
He said that as a country, Nigeria needs to train the referees with VAR to enable them cover the required number of hours stipulated by FIFA and CAF to enable them to be picked to officiate in championships.
The FIFA instructor informed the Minister that the VAR equipment was very expensive to procure. Given the huge financial exposure, he called on the sports ministry to assist with funding since NFF may not be able to fund the procurement of the required number of VAR to be deployed for use in the national league.
In the interim, he suggested that Nigeria can bridge the gap by sending referees for VAR training in countries like Morocco and Tunisia while it puts its house in order.
