ABUJA – The National Sports Commission (NSC) has said Nigerian referees would have the chance to officiate in international tournaments such as World Cup provided they worked hard to meet FIFA’s criteria.
Gbenga Elegbeleye, the Director-General of the NSC said this on Wednesday at the opening of a five-day FIFA Member Association (MA) Course organised for match officials in Nigeria.
He said time had come for FIFA to recognise the qualities of Nigerian referees especially now that the country had become the champions of African football.
“We need courses like this to bring them (the referees) up to the standard of world refereeing, so that they can be involved in FIFA-graded matches.
“We want to see Nigerian referees officiating in World Cup; we want to see Nigerian referees officiating in CAF competitions.
“We don’t want to go there as assistant referees and this is surely the root to getting that result from FIFA and CAF,’’ Elegbeleye said.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Aminu Maigari, noted that Nigerian referees are among the best in the world, expressing regret that they had yet to be given World Cup assignments.
Represented by a board member of the NFA, Emeka Inyama, Maigari expressed optimism that the ongoing course would provide the referees the opportunity to officiate at the World stage.
“I hope that these programmes will adequately prepare our home so that at the end of the day we should be able to have as many referees at the world cup and Olympic Games.
“It is a digital age, the General Secretary is highly digitalised, I am highly digitalised, Alhaji Muazu is, so also every referee should be highly digitalised.
“I am happy to see some of you carrying your cam coders recording events and all that; that is the level at which we want you to operate.
“I am told that a total of seven technical instructors, 30 elite referees, 14 physical fitness instructors and 37 referees’ assessors are attending this event which is an impressive number,’’ Maigari said.
He pointed out that the consistency in organising the course since 2011 till date had ensured steady development of the country’s referees.
Former FIFA referee and a resource person at the event, Lim Chong, said the course was necessary to develop the match assessors and others as they were an integral part of football development.
Chong, who hails from Mauritius, urged the referees to work harder and improve themselves as that would give them the opportunity of officiating at the world stage.
He also urged the referees to believe in themselves and aspire to greater heights. (NAN)
