By Daily Sports on June 20, 2017

Former Nigerian coach Austin Eguavoen has called it quits with Premier League side Sunshine Stars over frustrations with the performance of local league referees. It should be big news, even if it hasn’t made the headlines of Nigerian papers as often as the story of Evans the kidnapper has done.

The near-glee with which Nigerians jump into news on the latest revelation about the evil of the notorious kidnapper has been remarkable, even if the crimes committed have been truly heinous. The gossip has almost stifled other topics of national importance and the news of ex-international Eguavoen’s resignation has been somewhat hidden under the pile of hot news.

But it is a piece of news that should matter a lot, especially for those concerned about the progress of the game of football in Nigeria. That a man in this tough economy, an ex-international coach and ex-captain of the Super Eagles to give up his high-paying job because of the low level performance of Nigerian referees in the premier league where his Sunshine team were campaigning is telling about the angst against the men in black.

The default position of those who like the status quo of poor officiating to continue in Nigerian football (and I’ve seen many of them) is to point out that even in top European football, referees sometimes perform badly. But this is a rubbish argument.

Although there has been only a marginal improvement in the Nigerian league in the last couple of seasons in terms of refereeing, just take a look at the average weekend results of the premier league and the home-win at all costs syndrome is still alive and well. Never would you see in any consistency consecutive weekends where many away teams record points. A lot of this surely have to do with either compromised or scared refs. Now, Eguavoen has displayed a remarkable sense of principle by opting to call time on coaching in the league, telling newsmen: “I promised not to leave Sunshine Stars in all fairness; but one need to see what happened while I was in charge of Sunshine Stars. The refs denied us at least one point each in almost all the matches.”

Who, as a coach, wouldn’t be fed up with the performance of the referees and the league system itself when results are more likely not going to be determined by the quality of a team on match day but on refereeing?

The pressure on referees to influence results in the Nigerian league has been a long running thing and, sadly, it could be one of the reasons clubs are struggling to be tactically more creative and to create a consistently good system of play that could favour our national teams who could benefit from a balanced and quality league.

Recently I watched a pro division 1 match involving FC Racing coached by Ex-Super Eagles striker Victor Agali. They were playing away and in the first half they fashioned out beautiful passing football and scored a good goal. They were in real free flowing mood.

At half time, some hooligans besieged the entrance to the referees’ dressing room and were making all sorts of wild threats. A high ranking official of the home team, perhaps fearing the repercussions of any violence, assured the leader of the hooligans that the second half would be different. A top government official strolled out of the ref's dressing room, and on citing him, the hooligans left with the assurance that their team would win the game.

In the second half, seeing that almost every decision of the referee was dramatically going against them, Racing switched formation to a very low defensive block, just in front of their 18-yard box. Their play became attritional rather than the attractive stuff they displayed in the first half.

The game eventually ended in a draw.

Speaking with the press after the game, Agali complained that the ref forced them to play unattractively with his questionable calls in the second half. “Blame the ref for the kind of football you’re saw in the second half. They’re not allowing us play the way we would like,” Agali said.

Eguavoen revealed that he’s not alone in being fed up about the Nigerian league because of bad officiating.

“Look at my mates in the playing days; many of us are coaches, how many of us are in the league?

“Myself, Ike Shorounmu and Ally Agu, some don’t want to coach in the league because of things like this,” he said.

The fact that Eguavoen is the first top coach to quit over referees performance would hopefully spark more debate on how to improve the quality of officiating and remove the Nigerian league away from the predictable bore of home wins at all costs and make it a more exciting and unpredictable league that would ensure clubs and coaches work harder to produce the right talents and tactics.

Nigerian football would truly grow if there’s a conscientious resolve to improve officiating. There doesn’t necessarily have to be a witch-hunt against does whose hands have been soiled in the nonsense of influencing refs illegally. Too many hands might have been stained.  But a forward-looking resolve to put the evil of compromised refereeing to bed is a must if we are serious about improving Nigerian football.

Source Daily Sports

Posted June 20, 2017

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