Gusau’s Confession: ‘Absence Of Nigerian referees at international tournaments gives me sleepless nights’
In what looks a correct confession, the President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Gusau, has declared that the absence of Nigerian referees at international tournaments supplies him sleepless nights.
“Most cases, when FIFA or CAF unlock the list of referees for international tournaments without the inclusion of any Nigerian referee, I endure sleepless nights,” he said. “I have interaction wondering why Nigeria, with thousands of referees, can't salvage the final decrease. It is embarrassing, and we on the NFF salvage vowed to swap the yarn positively,” Gusau said on the month-to-month awards ceremony of Nigeria’s second-tier league, the Nigeria Nationwide League (NNL), in Abuja, at some stage in the week.
He said: “We now salvage put a method in build to address this stressful trend by grooming shimmering and wholesome young men and ladies who're expected to upward thrust to the discontinue. We requested the NRA to assemble about 40 young referees for a pilot challenge geared toward earning international recognition in the come future.”
Gusau added: “Last season, we started the sanitisation of officiating by substituting stepped-down referees with these young ones. Previously, about 12 of them salvage moved as much as the elite league and are performing successfully. Refereeing has long past past suitable running 10 laps—it's likely you'll possibly per chance also level-headed be bodily fit, wholesome, computer-literate, and shimmering to be successful.”
The NFF boss further acknowledged that Nigerian soccer will construct more successfully with competent referees, adding that he appears to be like forward to a future the build Nigerian referees are very popular globally.
“With these young men, I suspect the long flee is gleaming for Nigerian soccer and the NRA,” he acknowledged.
In accordance to Complesports.com, Gusau acknowledged that the NFF, in collaboration with the NRA, is working assiduously to salvage certain that the young carve of referees being groomed will soon contemptible amongst the finest in Africa, suitable as he assured Nigerians that native soccer referees would change into a dominant power in officiating precise thru the continent soon. He counseled the NNL for aligning with the NFF’s calendar by concluding the league on time table.
