Stop killing Nigerian Leagues, Inyama tells referees

The Chairman of the Nigeria National League, Emeka Inyama, has warned the Nigerian Referees Association to stop putting the game of football to disrepute through alleged taking of bribes from club managers and chairmen and biased officiating in Nigerian leagues, especially the Globacom Nigerian Professional Football League.
The Nigeria Football Federation Board member disclosed this shortly after NNL’s Board meeting held at the NNL’s Secretariat in Abuja on Thursday.
Inyama said that if the Nigerian leagues are to be transformed and function well the men of the whistle should have a change of behaviour and rescue the league by shunning bribes from club officials and officiate well.
He said: “So it is very wrong for Ahmed Maude (President of Nigerian Referees Association) to have alleged that poor remuneration as regards the payment of N14,000 indemnities of the referees are responsible for corruption among the referees.
“This is not the first time we are paying this sum of money. The question is who are those bribing the referees? Is it Emeka Inyama? Who are these clubs and are they the ones bribing the referees?
“I went on air last month to say that the problem of our league is referees. A top former referee official wrote me a letter and said I shouldn’t have said so. We shouldn’t support this because a corrupt person is a corrupt person. What of the billionaires and still stealing money. Is it because they are getting a little? That is not true.
“So it is wrong for Maude to have said that. Because of the amount that it is not much we have encouraged neighbourhood officiating. So there is no referee that goes from Kwara to Maiduguri. For instance, Akwa Ibom referee handles a match in Umuahia because it is close by. They don’t pay for accommodation and feeding. So the money we pay is just allowance. We have encouraged them to have their jobs because this refereeing is just a passion and hobby.
“Corruption does not have to do with the amount or the quantity. In any case, if there is anybody that is inducing corruption in the league, all clubs must look at themselves. When we held a seminar, I begged and begged that clubs should stop giving bribes to referees. If club A and club B refuse to give bribes to referees, we are surely going to
witness fair officiating in our leagues.
“We do not appoint referees and we do not also discipline them. We don’t appoint match commissioners ands we don’t also discipline them. Can’t you guys have pity on us and see how difficult it is to run a good league in this circumstance. You will say this referee has done badly and before two weeks you will see same referee handling another match after we have done a report that he should be dropped.
“The league will only work 100 per cent when the league body has a very big say in the appointment and punishment of referees. For control purposes it may not be given to us otherwise we will be accused of fixing referees and match commissioners. But let us have representatives in these committees for the sake of balance and information. That is the way to go.”
Meanwhile, in a communiqué made available to members of the press, the Nigeria National League stated it has taken measures to ascertain any case of match fixing in their league with the setting up of a committee to look into the issue.
According to the communique, the members of the committee are: Sir Emmanuel Ochaigha, who is the Chairman; Charles Ojugbana; Paul Bassey; Toyin Ibitoye; and Barrister Isaac Danlandi.
The NNL also postponed the Weeks 29 and 30 matches for two weeks to allow the NFF Disciplinary Committee to dispense with outstanding cases and to enable some outstanding games to be replayed as ordered by Committee.
The National league body stated that in order to confirm the withdrawal of Zamfara United from the league, Hon. Jafaru Ibrahim, the Special Assistant on Sport to the Zamfara State Governor, and Adamu Alhassan, the Director General of the Zamfara State Sports Development Council, were contacted and they confirmed the withdrawal.