The season before the current 2023/24 NPFL
campaign was a short one that ended with the Super-6 playoff at the
Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre in Lagos.
Perhaps the way it was played, with a temporary management
committee, all attention on the league with a new management, and
of course the referees being paid their allowances made things work
seemingly well.
And then the final-6 event Lagos was on international television
and every game was played at one centre which ultimately made
regular fans unofficial referee assessors at the venue for each
game.
The referees were aware that the games were being played live on
TV; they were aware of the daily reviews of their performance and
activities by the thousands of fans that they had no choice but to
behave in very responsible ways.
One underlying fact, though, is that the refs and officials who
had major roles especially towards the end of the regular season
and during the playoff were “carefully” selected.
The referees regarded as having very tainted records were left
out of the games. This explains why media reports were more on the
players, teams and the matches than on the men we grew up knowing
as men in black.
Sport
Super-6 and Naija Super-8
playoffs
At the same period in 2023 was the inaugural edition of the Naija
Super-8 – a privately organized pre-season event that showcased
eight Nigerian teams that qualified via the votes of football
fans.
The organizers gave the referees and other match officials the
best treatment so far received in the history of the game in the
country, and they responded to the good treatment by being very
firm and focused in their decisions.
There were times referees decisions were questioned during both
playoffs but many followers of the game, especially those who were
at the stadium, waved them off as human errors. The competitions
were thus reviewed positively as the negatives were quite
insignificant.
Nigerian referees: Pay-as-you-go
era
The playoffs season may have been called good time but there was an
ugly era before this period. This was the ugly period were a good
team would go through the eye-of-the-needle to win a match away
from their base even when they were as much as ten times better
than their opponents.
A major factor that shaped this period was the money in the
pockets of the clubs officials.
We had what can be described as horror seasons under the immediate
past board of the League Management Board.
During this period, the referees were not paid their allowances.
They travelled distances from their homes to run games without
being paid. There was no money paid and no insurance cover for
these referees who were also expected to be fair to all sides.
What was shocking was that the teams in the league continued to
play and these men travelled all over the country taking the bills
for national assignments along with the demands of parenthood and
nobody raised the alarm to stop the league.
How could they have been travelling round the country without
pay? The answer was glaring.
The clubs took care of them unofficially until it was made
official. There is an old team that had very huge budgets and
everyone was somehow aware of it.
In those periods they dominated the league and their coach
easily became a part of the Super Eagles coaching crew. The season
the referees were heavily organized and monitored, they dropped to
the lower league. The other clubs who also had huge budgets could
not be left out of taking “good care” of the referees and they had
control of the game.
Sport
Matches without television
These clubs were aided by the fact that the matches were no longer
on TV. Even when it was on TV, clubs and their referees cheated,
but then taking the games out of direct public view and scrutiny
made it even worse.
Moreover, the referees and their conniving club officials held
sway. A change with a new board and better payment and scrutiny of
the referees improved the level of officiating through the 2022/23
season.
Fans were hoping for a better 2023/2024 season but referees have
come into the full view again in the leagues as it has become a
situation of one week, one ugly incident.
What is happening in the Nigeria Professional Football League is
softer compared to what is happening in the lower leagues. The NPFL
has closer watch and compliance check with the more resources
available to the management of the league but still referees have
found ways to shock the world.
Lower leagues and stiffer
penalties
The referees at the lower league have taken the game to disrepute
more than we had ever seen in recent past seasons. Barely a
fortnight ago, a player scored a goal like a volleyball player
blocking a spike by the net while a referee stood just a few metres
watching.
The goal was recorded to the dismay of the whole world but the
referee stood his ground claiming he accepted the goal for purely
safety reasons as there were very serious threats to his life if he
disallowed it. Interestingly, the following week there was another
in the same lower league.
The referees are up again, but what has made things different
this season compared to the old season is that both the NPFL and
the National League have management teams that have found ways of
responding to irregularities from the referees and the clubs they
are conniving with to cheat and bring the competition to
disrepute.
Despite the speedy reactions and stiffer punishments, the
resurgent negative attitudes of some of the referees can hardly
help market the leagues.
Sport
Marketing and sponsorship
hindrance
There is no league in Nigeria whether played by the men or ladies
that has full sponsorship. Just as the refs do some magic with the
men’s games, a lot is also happening with the women’s event
concerning poor officiating.
A decade ago, this was not the story as the leagues had
sponsors. The downturn of the Nigerian economy, coupled with the
poor management of the country’s football discouraged likely
sponsors.
The long drawn battle over the football federation board leading
up to FIFA’s intervention did not help marketing the major league.
However, current managers of the NPFL, as well as the
NFF are battling to secure major sponsorship deals.
What the football authorities in Nigeria have always done is to
punish individual referees and impose blanket sanctions on the
clubs. One thing that could change the situation and straighten out
every official is when the club officials, as well as others who
offer inducement to the referees are singled out and treated as
accessories to corruption.
This way, the cleaning process would get the country’s fraud
units involved. When jail terms are involved, no matter how short,
individuals would sit up and make Nigerian leagues better.