President of Nigeria the Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau has charged Nigerian referees to make conscious, deliberate efforts to change the current negative narratives about their performances by telling themselves the truth and resolving to uphold their professional tenets while committing to decent conduct.
Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja as 30 referees were decorated with their FIFA badges to represent Nigeria in international competitions this year, Gusau reiterated that a big sore point with the NFF and the Nigeria Football community as the Super Eagles excelled at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cote d’Ivoire was the absence of any Nigerian referee of any cadre at the event.
Gusau said it was a real shame that the country did not have even an assistant referee as the CAF Head of Refereeing was quoted saying Nigerian referees are good but they need only the best to handle matches at major tournaments.
The NFF President said he receives complaints and videos about poor officiating in domestic league matches almost every week, and always forward these to the Referees Committee to see that there are still some bad eggs among them. He lamented that some of the decisions he sees are simply inexplicable and challenged the referees to resolve to change their ways and change the narratives about Nigerian referees at home and abroad.
Gusau disclosed that the Federation has opted to come up with stiffer sanctions for erring officials.
Earlier, Chairman of the NFF Referees Committee, Faith Irabor admitted that the Gusau administration has been excellent in responding to the demands of referees since coming into office, and promised that all that is necessary will be done to restore Nigerian refereeing to its pride of place in the continent.
A total of 30 individuals were decorated, including seven men referees, seven men assistant referees, four women referees, four women assistant referees, four beach soccer referees and four futsal referees.
One of the beach soccer referees, Jelili Ogunmuyiwa is presently on duty at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates while Musa Dung Davou is on his way to the FIFA Futsal World Cup finals.