In a bid to return to the summit of football refereeing, 115 Nigerian referees have been selected to undergo a 15-day intensive training from FIFA referring instructors.
The training will see a total of 35 participants taking part in the Women Referees Course, while 40 participants are in the Futsal Referees Course and another 40 are involved in the Elite Men Referees Course.
It would be recalled that no Nigerian referee has officiated at the FIFA World Cup while CAF in the last decade has not considered any Nigerian referee for the Africa Cup of Nations. Due to lack of consistency in the nomination of referees for FIFA and CAF seminars, Nigerian referees were always ignored by these football bodies.
Speaking yesterday during a visit by the instructors, the President of Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau called on FIFA refereeing instructors who are in Nigeria, to help improve the lot of Nigerian referees to a level that they would be regularly considered for major FIFA and CAF assignments.
“We have our teams regularly taking part in major competitions in Africa and the world, and it is always a painful thing seeing referees from other countries while we hardly get to see our own compatriots of the whistle. We want you to take up this assignment beyond the regular instruction courses; you should endeavour to communicate with them all the time, encourage them, support them and give them tips that will keep improving them to get to the top,” Gusau told the FIFA team.
The FIFA instructors, led by Gladys Lengwe from Zambia, also includes Houssein Ali Mohamed from Djibouti, Said Nouri from Morocco and Bento Navesse from Mozambique. They are in Nigeria to superintend a Women Referees Course, a Futsal Referees Course and an Elite Men Referees Course, all happening between 1st – 15th July 2023.
The women referees’ course and futsal referees’ course, which began on Saturday, will end on Thursday, 6th July, while the elite men referees’ course will take centre stage between 9th – 15th July.