The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has vowed that corrupt referees who are out to kill the nation’s domestic league would be thrown out of the system.
A competent NFF source disclosed yesterday that the soccer federation is not happy with the way the NPFL started last Saturday at the Sanni Abacha Stadium, Kano where the league opener between Kano Pillars and FC IfeanyiUbah was abandoned after 47 minutes of action.
FC IfeanyiUbah had opted to abandon the game, no thanks to the dubious call of Oyo State centre referee Folusho Ajayi who rather than allow a free kick goal scored by the Anambra Warriors on the dot of 45 minutes decided to abruptly end the first half after the kick was taken.
A top NFF official who preferred to remain anonymous, stated yesterday:
“We are going to do something about this officiating thing, even if it means going for foreign referees from other neighboring countries. We won’t allow some corrupt referees to spoil the good job the LMC is doing. The LMC is working hard to take the league to the next level but officiating is a big problem. Virtually all the clubs are complaining. We just can’t fold our arms over this challenge of poor officiating. We are going to throw out corrupt and incompetent referees.”
Meanwhile, Daily Sunsports gathered that both FC IfeanyiUbah and the referee that handled the Kano match would face heavy sanctions.
“Agreed the referee messed up, what IfeanyiUbah did by abandoning the match was going to the extreme. They brought the game to disrepute. The fact that the game was the very first of the season makes what FC IfeanyiUbah did the more unacceptable,” our source said.
NPFL Results
Rivers Utd 2-1 El-Kanemi
Enyimba 1-0 Sunshine Stars
MFM FC 3-0 Niger Tornadoes
Katsina Utd 2-1 Gombe Utd
Wikki Tourist 0-0 Nasarawa Utd
Remo Stars 1-2 Plateau Utd
Rangers 1-2 Abia Warriors
ABS 3-1 Akwa United.
Shooting Stars 2-0 Lobi Stars.
Kano Pillars 1-0 FC Ifeanyi Ubah
credit: sunnewsonline
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