ABUJA – Sunday Audu, a former Secretary of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA), on Thursday advocated training for Nigerian referees to improve their performance.
Audu, who is one of the presidential aspirants in the forthcoming NRA elections, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said younger referees needed to be brought up from academies for the association to achieve its aim of having representatives at FIFA.
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“Refereeing is all about training; whenever we put a very good structure on ground on training, you will get what we want because we want to see (a situation) where we will bring out the younger referees from the academy so that we will achieve what we want at the FIFA level.
“We need NRA that one will see and appreciate and be proud of. We need NRA that one day we will represent this country at the FIFA level.“
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Audu said if elected, he would ensure that a good training mechanism was put in place to ensure that referees were up to date in their trade just as he would introduce disciplinary measures to address the issue of bribery of referees.
“We want a situation whereby nobody will give referees money to favour a team.
“We will stop football hooliganism in such a way that when a referee goes to officiate and they entice him or her with money, and when he refuses and officiates well, they won’t offer money next time.
“So, my mission is to protect the image of the association.“
NAN reports that the association’s election will come up on a yet to be decided date next month. (NAN)