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| Tade Azeez.President NRA. |
The Nigeria Referees(Football) Association, NRA, has condemned in strong terms the
unsavoury attacks meted to its members handling matches in various
scenes of the country's football, especially now that the professional
league is winding up. The body also expressed disappointment with the
reaction of the League Management Company, LMC for indifference approach
to the match officials who escaped death by whiskers in the ill-fated
Taraba FC vs Nasarawa United, match in Jalingo.
Against the backdrop
of the near death the Referees experienced in the tensed match where one
of the Assistant Referees, Efozia Peter, was in coma and revived hours
later and Referee Ferdinand Udoh, FIFA, who received body injuries from
attacks meted on them by irate football fans, the Tade Azeez led body
has charged football organisers to protect the Referees at all match
venues.
Tade, according to a
statement made available to newsmen by the National Publicity Secretary,
Kelechi Mejuobi, described the attack on match officials as not only
barbaric but also an unwarranted act inimical to the growth of Nigerian
football. While stating that the body will not tolerate the antics of
club officials and their sponsored hooligans masquerading as soccer fans
at the stadia who vent their anger on referees over their club woes,
the NRA stated that the LMC or any other soccer organising body has the
right to sanction our members for any suspected incident connected to a
match.
On insinuation raised
about the conduct of the Referees on the said match in Jalingo stadium,
Tade opined that crass ignorance of the FIFA 17 Laws of the Game, with
respect to Law 5 which concerns "Authority of the Referee" could be
responsible for the irascible reactions of the riotous fans in the
Jalingo match. The NRA stated that Law 5 empowers the Referees control
and to exercise jurisdiction over the field of play, players and the
match officials including the dressing room. The body however noted that
referee Udoh with assistants including the home Referee who acted as
Fourth Official, also joined to discharge their officials duties in the
dressing rooms as alleged.
"Apart from putting
strategic measures to ensure that Referees perform at optimal levels
and comply to the rules of the game in accordance to international and
national standards, the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, Referees
Committee, has adopted disciplinary measures to whip erring Referees
into line, hence those found wanting are made to pay the price.
Therefore, it amounts to sheer savagery on the parts of the supporters
to attack Referees at will when the outcome of a particular match does
not favour their favourite clubs"
The statement further
frowned at the hasty decision of the LMC to make pronouncements
concerning performance of Referees after matches without proper recourse
to the NRA and committee responsible for placement of match officials
for matches. The NRA showed concern on the indifference of LMC to the
attacked Referees who were almost sent to their graves early in Jalingo
adding that the body will not hesitate from withdrawing from
competitions where the organisers are not willing to protect the
interest of our members.
"It is disheartening
to note that instead of showing concern for our injured Referees who it
took hours to revive after being beating to a pulp, the league
organizers rushed to engage in blame game than consider the survival of
the match officials involved" Tade added.
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