…15 referees fail fitness test in Abuja
Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The President of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA), Alhaji Tade Azeez said there is no reason to lose sleep over the exclusion of Nigerian referees to officiate at the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Speaking in Abuja at the concluded weeklong fitness test for Premier League referees last weekend, Azeez argued that like Nigeria, English referees were equally missing in the list of officials, stressing that it was a confirmation that clandestine thing might be going on within the referees’ fold.
In what appeared to be his first official reactions to Nigerian referees missing at the World Cup list of officials, Azeez said: “It is not only Nigerian referees that did not make the list. The English referees are not also there. What it means is that by now we should understand that certain things about referee to know that it goes beyond Nigerians missing at the World Cup.
“If you are talking of football, there is no other place better than England yet no English referee there. Many of these big football playing countries are equally missing in the list.
“It says much about what is happening in referee. So, let us leave this attitude of talking about Nigerian referees. There is no big deal if Nigerian referees are not in the World Cup list of officials.
“The good thing is that we have promised Nigerians that we are starting all over after the set back of where two of our referees in the elite division had heart problems. If they leave, there is a systemic way we bring new ones on board.
“What we see from our league matches from the referees point of view is much better than what we see elsewhere. Our referees are good and my target is to take them to the World Cup,” he noted.
On the fitness test, Azeez said: “The activity we concluded last weekend was one of the rituals in conducting quarterly fitness test four times in a year. It is to ensure that our central referees and assistants are fit at all times in line with FIFA directives and guidelines.
“There must be minuses because some of them that are not prepared to pass had prepared to fail. Some fell off and they are about 15 that could not make and they have to try their luck in the next quarter. We cannot use them in the next matches because result has shown that they are not fit.
“The new rule is that for anybody to be part of the league season, the referee must be prepared. It no longer the days you have to wait for fitness test annually. To be part of the officials, they have to be in shape and in tune every quarter,” he stated.