The technical chiefs of both Gombe United Football Club and Enyimba International on Sunday decried what they viewed as the poor officiating of their 2021/2022 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Match Day 6 fixture ended in a goalless draw at the Pantami Stadium in Gombe.
That was after both teams failed to convert their goalscoring chances.
However, Aliyu Zubairu, the Technical Adviser of Gombe United described as “negative and frustrating’’ the match’s officiating.
Zubairu stated that while his team were not lucky to have won the game, the officiating was not fair in line with the spirit of football.
“The officiating is unheard of. Enyimba continued to waste the time, only for the referee to add only four minutes. This is not done anywhere.
“The time that must be added as extra time must commensurate with the time wasted on the pitch, which we didn’t see,” he said.
Zubairu went on to state that his efforts as a coach were being frustrated by the officiating his team had witnessed in recent games.
“I want the League Management Company (LMC) to come to the aid of our team.
“You cannot just be working throughout the whole week and in one minute or second, one referee will just destabilise the whole thing.
“It is not in my nature to discuss referees because it is not my work. My work is for me to coach my team, which I am doing, but the referee should be up and doing.
“It is discouraging to have them frustrate our efforts,’’ he stated angrily.
On his part, the Technical Adviser of Enyimba, Finidi George, said his team would have won the match “but for the difficult decisions from the referee.
“In the second half, we had a better game and we would have won it with the several glaring chances but the referee didn’t allow it,’’ he said.
George, however, stated that though he was not happy with the result, securing an away point was a consolation for his team.
He added that such an away point had a way of impacting positively on team’s performances at the end of the season.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Gombe United FC Management, Larry Daniel, appealed to the LMC to take serious measures against poor officiating in the interest of the league and football development.
Daniel said poor officiating was the reason the fans at the stadium were attempting to beat up the match officials.
“Biased officiating by match officials does not allow the good teams to win matches,” he added.
NAN also reports that the match’s officials had to be escorted out of the stadium by security personnel as well as top management officials of Gombe United.
The fans however threw sachets of water at them to protest the officiating
