President of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA), Sanni Zubair, has reiterated the body’s commitment to ensure that referees performing below par were flushed out of the country’s domestic leagues.
Zubair stated this in Lagos against the backdrop of incessant cases of poor officiating by match officials in the ongoing 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season.
So far, 10 round of matches have played in the 2023/24 NPFL but constant complaints over bad officiating is threatening the beautiful game of football in the country.
“Aside from the players, a referee has the utmost power to make or mar a match; we have put in place several measures to stand as deterrent,” Zubair told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
“We don’t care who the god-father is, once the fact has been established that a referee has erred deliberately, such a person will face the full wrath of the law guiding principles of officiating.
“Our recent decision to punish some match officials shows that we’re not playing. We will do what we can to ensure that we flush out bad referees and make players have confidence in officiating 100 per cent.” he said.
Recall that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) recently suspended 14 referees in the ongoing NPFL season over poor officiating.
