Referees Risk 10 Years Ban - NFF Warns

Referees Risk 10 Years Ban - NFF Warns

Precious Oham

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Refereeing Development Committee has read the riot act to referees in the nation's top leagues over poor officiating, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

This was contained in a statement by Mohammed Ameenu, Secretary of the NFF Refereeing Development Committee.

According to the NFF, "It is obvious that all the three Leagues (NPFL, NNL and NWFL) are at critical stage while the NLO will kick-start today, Wednesday, 23rd April 2025.

"We are conscious that teams and their agents within and outside the Refereeing, as well as the football circles, will mount pressure on you to court favours for their teams and paymasters.

 "The President and the General Secretary of the NFF have instituted a powerful monitoring Committee with Members sent to all match Centres to INDEPENDENTLY report any observations that are not in line with the provisions of the Laws of the Game or tend to bring both Refereeing and the game into disrepute. Most of these matches, if not all, will be streamed live and available for all to see and evaluate our performances.

"All Referees appointed for matches at these stages of the NPFL, NNL, NWFL and even the NLO are hereby instructed to uphold the principles of equity, fairness and justice.

"Anyone found to have acted contrarily will not only be suspended but banned from any football activity for not less than ten (10) years as we shall consider this as sabotage of our efforts to ensure the growth of the game and Refereeing, which constitute an attempt to determine/manipulate the outcome of matches outside the Laws of the game, and therefore, implies match-fixing.

 "Anyone found to have acted in these negative ways shall also be handed over to State Security Services for further investigation and prosecution. You are all warned ahead of time."