Secretive List Made By Referee's appointment Committee on Match Day 1 of NPFL

 

Matters Arising:

By Sunday Agunbiade (Mr VAR)

My sporting regards to the entire members of this noble platform, *Sports World* and of course anyone who may later read this piece across the world 

 I observed with dismay the secretive nature of appointment list of the match officials that were on duty on Match Day 1 of Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL held across Eight(8) centres on 30th September ,2023

Going down the memory lane, particularly during the last tenure wherein the NRA followed the global best practices by making the names of the umpire known and thus further made them accessible to the sporting world for post match assessment. Kudos to their former Publicity Secretary who is now the Vice President of the association, Kelechi Mejuobi 

Surprisingly, this is the first official assignment of the NRA President, Alhaji Sanni Subair who is a member of this noble platform, same goes to the Chairperson of the Appointment Committee , Mrs Faith Irabor who also domiciled with this family.

My questions now are :

Why did the Committee keep the names of the officials away from Media Space?

Secondly, what is hidden about the present NRA excos that compelled them to go the way of medieval period against the standard and global best practices?

I think it high time the NRA reacted to this development as the timing of the Match Day 1 fixture might be the reason for their actions or any other reasons we are yet to know

Lest I forget, there is an alleged irregularity against a particular female referee(FIFA badge referee) who failed a fitness test and still got appointed in Match Day 1 of NPFL. This has not been confirmed yet though but the NRA should please realize that the world is now a global village wherein the names of officials are known and assessed afterwards. 

In connection to the above, while we like to reiterate that some of us cannot fold our hands and condone this kind of belittling act, we must all strive to ensure that Nigeria should not be seen as a backward entity among the committee of sporting nations.

I therefore appeal to the leadership of the NRA to  please do a lot better and project the image of the league by following the global standards in Referee's appointment list visible to the world with fair officiating 

I so submit