LAGOS – The Lagos State chapter of National Athletics Technical Officials (NAATO) on Friday appealed to the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to assist in the sponsorship of its members to attend training courses. The association, in a meeting held in Lagos on Friday to harmonise resolution reached during the 2014 Annual General Meeting, pleaded with the AFN to assist in organising refresher courses for its members.
Segun Omodunni, Chairman of the chapter told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that as an affiliate of AFN the federation should see this as part of its responsibilities to members of the association.
“It is the responsibility of sports federations in the country to ensure that accredited umpire and referees are well trained and updated in the knowledge of the rules and regulations governing the sports.
“To ensure that technical officials perform well and above board, in any competition they have to be well trained and be able to understand the rule of the game. [eap_ad_1] “There are International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) certification programmes which have been eluding our members due to lack of sponsorship, this is the area we want AFN to come in to assist us,” he said.
According to Omodunni it will be practically difficult to assign a Nigerian official who is not abreast with the changing rules of events to handle an international event.
He attributed the near absence of Nigerian officials in events such as the All Africa Games and the Commonwealth Games to non attendance of international training courses.
The chairman, who painted a gloomy picture of the trend, called on the federation to reverse the scenario and make the members IAAF compliant.
Speaking on the resolutions reached, secretary of the association, Williams Ayodeji said that the association agreed to source for fund to send members to courses if AFN fails to come to their aid.
“We cannot fold our arms and allow ourselves to rot away for lack of training.
“For years now we have not been accorded that privilege by the federation,” he said.
He disclosed that should the association shoulder the responsibility of trainings of their members, it will be compelled to charge AFN fees to allow its members officiate in the federation’s organised competitions.(NAN).
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