NPFL: No Room For Complacency, Says NRA News

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NPFL: No Room For Complacency, Says NRA

By Obaseki Anthony on November 10, 2019

Referees assigned to handle Week Two matches of the 2019/2020 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) have been charged to be steadfast in the course of discharging their duties to avoid any pitfalls.

This instruction was handed to them by the President of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) Otunba Tade Azeez.

Otunba Azeez disclosed that the NFF Referees Committee is reviewing performances of Week One matches based on reports, especially those of referees assessors across the centres. He warned that the NFF Referees Committee/NRA won’t tolerate any attempt to bring the game to disrepute.

The NRA President added that while the referees’ body is unrelenting at ensuring better welfare packages and conductive environment for referees to operate, nothing more than perfect officiating is expected.

As a warm-up for his upcoming Cape Verde vs Mozambique CAF Nations Cup Qualifier on November 18, 2019, a University of Calabar lecturer and a FIFA-badged referee, Joseph Ogabor of the Cross River State Referees Council, will be the cynosure at the Agege Stadium, when Nnewi-based Ifeanyi Uba visit MFM of Lagos. Yahaya Ikara of Kaduna and Donald Andrew of Bauchi are the assistants while a retired referee Abdulahi Bako will assess their performances. Ogabor has impressed CAF, thus being called to handle three crucial international games in the past three weeks.

Another university don, Dr Anirou Shantali (Fifa Rtd) of Sokoto State University and Deputy National Training Officer (DNTO) of NRA, will be on hand to jot down how Fifa-badged Jelili Ogunmuyiwa will handle the Rivers United vs Heartland of Owerri game in Port Harcourt. The international Beach Soccer referee is expected to justify why he is one of the dependable domestic premier league arbiters. Sokoto-based Elisha Owolabi and Auwal Usman of Kebbi and Gombe are on the lines.

In Uyo, a renowned administrator and the immediate past Secretary General of the NRA, Prince Moruf Oyekunle Oluwa, will be in charge of the referees as Iranloye Shina of the Kwara Council leads Bazza Sufiyan of Adamawa and A Mustafa of Katsina onto the Goodswill Akpabio Stadium for the encounter between Akwa United vs Abia Warriors.

In Gombe, the adopted home of Adamawa for their game against Rangers, the latest Professor of Physical and Health Education in town, S.O Ladipo of the University of Ibadan and retired referee of the Oyo State Referees Council, will report how Kano-based Iman Malik, Musa Isa of Niger and Secretary of the Ekiti State Council Kehinde “Cuba” Adetule will handle the game.

The appointment from the NFF Referees Committee is as follows:

1 JIGAWA G STARS VS PLATEA UTD

VICTOR IJEREMERE FCT Assessor

OLAYINKA O LG Referee

EFOSA E. ED Assistant Referee 1

OKOYE C AN Assistant Referee 2

ALI KOLO BO 4th official

2 LOBI STARS VS DELTA FORCE FC

BAWA A ZM

GREMA

MOHAMMED BO

USMAN A. OY