The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has disclosed that issues related to training and development of referees in the country remains paramount in its agenda.
President of the Federation, Mr Amaju Melvin Pinnick made this known during the closing session of this year’s FIFA Member Associatian Course, (FIFA MA Course) in Abuja.
Represented by the General Secretary, GS of the NFF, Dr Sanusi Mohammed, the Federation reiterated the importance of training and development of refereeing, which prompted serious commitment to provision of necessary logistics for success.
“We can’t slow down in backing development of referees. We go extra miles to seek for fund for training of the referees.
“It is part of the resolve of the Amaju Pinnick led NFF to ensure improvement of referees’ capacity via trainings and workshops, hence the federation does everything possible for the purpose.
“Apart from sending the referees to abroad for further trainings which had been done by Amaju in the past, contract for insurance for the players and also referees have been sourced” Dr Sanusi Mohammed added.
The NFF while asking the participants to translate the trainings into positive outcomes offered to strategize with the referees to enable arbiters in Nigeria get better attention for handling of top flight CAF and FIFA competitions.
In his speech, Chairman of the NFF Referees Committee, Alhaji Shari Inuwa Rabiu Ahlan said that Nigeria has talented, physically fit and knowledgeable referees who can undertake international matches of any standard adding that the essence of this type of training is to produce world class referees.
President of the Nigeria Referees Associatian, NRA and Member of the NFF Referees Association, Otunba Tade Azeeez expressed happiness for the trainings and urged participants to appreciate the efforts of the federation with fair and firm officiating while on the field of play.
The exercise which commenced on Monday saw FIFA trained Instructors both foreign and Nigerian based drill the participants on field and classroom works.
