Opinion: When Will Nigerian Referees Rule Again???

The exclusion or omission of Nigerian referees in international competitions is fast becoming embarrassing to Nigeria and Nigerians as a whole, whether on the continent, or at the global level.

No fewer than 36 match officials were invited for the 2016 edition of the African Championships by the Confederation of African Football, CAF, the body overseeing the affairs of football in Africa, and no single Nigerian referee appeared on the list.
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This got some of us worried and made us ask, if a footballing nation like Nigeria, no longer has the capacity to produce FIFA recognised referees like Quadri Ololade ADEBIMPE, Ago Abubarka, Udoh Ferdinand to mention a few anymore?

This also, doesn't seem to bother the Nigerian Referees' Association, or even the current Nigeria Football Federation administration, who has spent a fortune in building the capacity of Nigerian referees, which in-turn is yet to yield interest (just maybe it's a vision 30 30)?

But the question is, how did we get to this point really, where Nigeria does not have a representation in continental championships?

When we carefully examined the list of referees invited for 2016 CHAN by CAF, we concluded that Nigerian match officials were simply left out because they lack quality, unlike some assertions from some quarters that CAF referees are shortlisted based on the countries participating in a tournaments.

I'm sure you remember the name, Peter Elgam Edibe. He is the only Nigerian referee, out of the numerous officiating in the Nigeria Professional Football League and other championships in the

country, whose name has been reverberating over the last four to five years, flying the green, white and green flag as an assistant referee in a couple of CAF and FIFA competitions.

Peter was part of the match officials for the 2013 Confederation's cup in Brazil and equally distinguished himself to also repeated the role at the FIFA world cup in the same country the following year.

At some point, a lot of people blamed CAF for favouritism, but with a second glance at the performances of our indigenous referees, one would weep.

Have we also scrutinised the performances of Nigerian referees in the local league to see if they actually merit an invite at the continental level before considering the global stage.

There's no problem in being a Nigerian product, but the problem lies when that product fails to compete with global brands, which is where Nigerian referees have found themselves.

I've heard some of our referees say that CAF does not shortlist referees from countries they consider favourites in a competition, but the 2015 AFCON in Equitorial Guinea was such a perfect example; the Super Eagles failed out at the qualifiers' stage, yet Nigerian referees were missing in action.

One major problem we discovered is that an average Nigerian referee has failed to upgrade him/herself beyond the level of training they got at their institute, which isn't enough to compete at the continental and international level.

We also think that since CAF are unable to measure the performances of NRA members on a weekly, due of lack of televised fixtures, it may be difficult for them to get international invitations to officiate.

The time is now for Nigerian referees to stop being local champions, but raise their games to compete at the international stage, where it will be difficult for CAF or even FIFA to ignore them.

The NFF or NRA should also try as much as possible to organise capacity building programs, like the one held outside of the country sometime last year, but this time, within the country so that more referees would be involved and the impact would go beyond their hand-picked delegates.

Pinnick had once said that Nigeria is too big a country not to have a role to play at the FIFA level, we are also saying that Nigeria is too big not to have her referees officiate at FIFA organised competitions.

Below is the list of referees invited for the recently concluded African Nations championship, CHAN in Rwanda, enjoy let us know your experience or opinion about Nigerian referees, thanks for dropping by.

@tomiwaBabalola

#NAMES COUNTRY

1 Abid Charef Medhi Algeria

2 Bernard Camille Seychelles

3 Denis Dembele Cote d’Ivoire

4 Ibrahim Nour El Din Egypt

5 Daniel Bennet South Africa

6 Kordi Med Said Tunisia

7 Mohamed H. El Fadil Sudan

8 Nampiandraza Hamada Madagascar

9 Keita Mahamadou Mali

10 Ali Lemghaifry Mauritania