Nigeria’s highest ranked Federation of International Football Association, FIFA badged referee at the moment, Joseph Ogabor, says Nigeria must deliberately invest time and energy into early introduction of interested Nigerians to football refereeing if the country wants to see more Nigerian football referees at FIFA competitions.
Ogabor who was addressing the near absence of Nigerian football referees at FIFA competitions, as guest on HIT 95.9 FM, Calabar, Cross River State, emphasised that, “if we deliberately work at getting our children from the age of 12 years interested in football refereeing and guiding them through FIFA’s refereeing ranks, the end product will be several of them appearing as referees at those FIFA competitions in the long run.”
“But be rest assured that we are working and are almost there. We have ranks in football refereeing that you have to grow through. In Nigeria, we are almost there, it has been a process getting there, but I must assure you that we have some elite A and B referees who you will soon see at big FIFA tournaments.”
On the use of the Video Assistant Referee, VAR, technology in Nigeria’s domestic football league, Ogabor revealed that, “only three of us in Nigeria have done VAR training and in matches. It is a big football administration challenge for our country but we have the ability to get it working.
“The domestic football league he believes, has improved. “For the first time, this season produced a true league champion in Remo Stars. We are beginning to see football matches where a true winner emerges and wins are no more determined by the home factor. In the Nasarawa United versus Elkanemi Warriors match that I refereed this season, I awarded an 89th minute penalty against Nasarawa United, who of course were playing at home. Because the officiating was very fair, after Elkanemi scored the penalty and beat Nasarawa by three goals to two, there was no chaos, we are getting there”, the University of Calabar lecturer said.
