The Nigeria Premier League can best be described as a league of violence. Even then, must we wait until a referee is killed-God forbid- before making radical changes to rein in the agents of violence?
When a referee is killed, we will constitute panels to find out how the referee was killed, who did, why and how. Innocent souls will be arrested while the roughnecks will be walking the streets, free as air, with instructions from their principals not be seen around any stadium. Of course, the noise over the dastardly act won’t last long; it will be buried with the victim whose family will be left to bear the burden of losing their loved one.
Nothing seems to be new dawn because the same characters run the competition yearly. Those who run the domestic game have the penchant for signing MOUs. They enjoy listening to themselves. Those with dissenting views don’t know what it takes to run the game. But this writer won’t give up until the right personnel are put in place.
The first thing that stadia where games are played need urgently are effective CCTVs which can’t destroyed to cover up malpractices. Besides, any stadium that is slated to host games must build special exit gates that will make it absolutely impossible to access the referees before, during and after matches. Any harm inflicted on match referees will translate to 10 points deduction from the offender’s total. Such a defaulting club should never be allowed to play in that venue for one year.
With a live coverage of the domestic league, it will be easier to identify where a problem began. Those running the league met an existing television right sponsor and a title owner of the league. What happened to these two bodies which funded the operations of the organising body?
Referees should be encouraged to sue clubs which send touts to beat them. They should get justice, no matter the cost. The referees’ body should secure lawyers for them and refuse to discontinue such cases, no matter whose ox is gored. This idea of only asking clubs to pay assaulted referees’ hospital bills is not enough to save referees from violence.
For any venture to attract good funding, it should be packaged to look attractive. But with the spate of violence at venues, nobody will do sports business with the league until hoodlums are chased away from the stadia. The carnage at the stadium may dissuade spectators from watching games. Nobody will bring his family to the stadium only to scamper out of the place as violence breaks out.
I don’t subscribe to the view that we should introduce soldiers at match venues. They are no battle fronts. Stewards and those associated with keeping the stadium peaceful should be made to do their jobs; negligent ones should be axed. Many jobless Nigerians will be happy to land this kind of job. What happened at the Sagamu Stadium last week Saturday after Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City held Remo Stars 1-1, where the match referees were beaten, would have been avoided or the culprits caught, if some of the aforementioned suggestions were in place. The centre referee’s head needed stitches to the cuts sustained from objects used on it.
It isn’t enough for the LMC to reel out sanctions against defaulting clubs. The body should involve the police in punishing offenders since their actions are capable of causing a breach of public peace, which is an offence under the penal code.
Part of the LMC’s sanctions reads: ‘’The club has been fined N1m each for failure to ensure restriction of access to unauthorised persons, encroachment immediately after the match, throwing of objects towards the field of play, failure to provide adequate security for match officials, conduct capable of bringing the league to disrepute and compensation to the match officials.
‘’Remo Stars has been ordered to ensure that ‘measures are immediately put in place to forestall future similar occurrence (including but not limited to an approved revised security plan, seminar/programme for supporters, issuance of seat-numbered tickets, etc.)”.
‘’The club has also been directed to within seven days ensure the apprehension and prosecution by the relevant security agencies of the persons identified as Akintan Yinka and ‘Zico’ who were reported to have led the assault on the Match Officials, as well as other persons who participated in the assault on Match Officials; upon failure of which a fine of N25,000.00 (Twenty Five Thousand Naira only) per day shall accrue, until such time as the culprits are apprehended and charged to court.’’
We need to ask the LMC what sanctions were meted out to the Ogun State FA chieftains, especially the chairman and the General Secretary whose duty it is to ensure that games are played without problems? Are they not the ones to whom the referees and other match officials report when they arrive in the state? Is the LMC saying match officials aren’t the guests of the FAs?
State governments, through the FAs, are the owners of the stadium. It is, therefore, their responsibility to effectively police the stadium before, during and after matches. The state FA officials should be in charge of taking the officials to and out of the stadium, with maximum protection by armed security personnel, given the spate of malicious attacks on innocent referees. It isn’t the job of fans to interpret the rules of the game; that is the referees’ duty, having been trained and retrained by FIFA ‘s referees committee.
The best way to restrict match officials from having contact with teams and their officials is for the State FA chairman to handle everything pertaining to their stay in the town. This way, we will know who to hold when they are attacked. It shouldn’t be the duty of the clubs to house, feed and transport referees to and from the stadia. referees’ movement shouldn’t be dictated by the clubs. Little wonder those who bring them to the stadium are not always around to rescue them when criminals pounce on them.
Joy at last for Moses
The clock was ticking faster than as expected by former Super Eagles pearl Victor Moses. He has the right to decide his career path. But what was apparent in Moses’ self-inflicted transfer saga since the window opened on January 3 was that he didn’t have a career manager, which is a sad commentary, given the level he was until he lost his place to Chelsea’s manager Sarri’s convulsive playing style which has brought weekly pains to many a Blues’ fan.
Moses’ unfortunate fate in the transfer market is the story of most Nigerian players, who will rather handle their career than to employ experts. Career experts are connected with many clubs, such that if options 1,2 and even 3 fail, they can still fix the player a where he can play weekly – even if it means going there on loan till the end of the season, as in this instance.
The beauty of having career manager is that the player can sack him, if he falters in his duties. Indeed, most professional players (other sports inclusive) have teams of experts across all spheres of human endeavour to ensure that their clients are not left stranded for any reason. They are the ones who pull certain stunts in players’ growth to boost players’ growth in the game, not because they will benefit from such packages but to underline the fact that they know their onions.
Back to Victor Moses. The star who joined Fenerbahce FC of Turkey Wednesday night on a five months loan deal needs to be told that most big European clubs prefer national team players to those languishing on the bench weekly or, like in his case, permanently at home watching matches. Moses should know that age isn’t his friend anymore, hence he needs to relax his demands on clubs, irrespective of the fact that he will be joining them from a bigger club, Chelsea.
When Moses announced his retirement from Nigeria’s matches to face Chelsea’s, not few a felt that he had shot himself in the foot and he was about making the same mistake with the offers he was getting from troubled teams seeking to reinforce their squads with his sublime skills.
On Sunday, the news broke that Moses was demanding 200,000 Euros (approximately N81.2 million) from Turkish side Fenerbahce FC, if he succeeds in propelling the team out of the murky relegation waters. Besides, Moses asked the Turkey team to pay him some compensation, if it is relegated since such a fate would have tarnished his image, having not played for any relegated side since he hit Europe as a kid.
Had Moses a manager, he would have known that players take pay cuts to exit a club, especially those who have a point to prove. Moses should always take the best option on the table. He should quickly return to the Super Eagles and be seen as an international player, which is the best criterion to get juicy contracts abroad. A sterling performance for Nigeria in Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations raises his chances of a big contract thereafter. Now that Moses has joined Fenerbahce, he must not overrate himself, even if he becomes the club’s match winner. He should know that the deal with Fenerbahce is for five months. The bigger challenge will be how to exit Chelsea, which won’t be easy, except he impresses Fenerbahce to buyout his Chelsea contract. Moses could, however, be lucky if Chelsea sacks Maurisco Sarri, whose stay with the team appears to be in tatters, especially after lampooning his players publicly in a post-match session last Saturday.
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