By Ade Ojeikere
NO visiting team would walk off the pitch if the score-line is in its favour. In fact, match officials change their style of officiating in the second half, perhaps after a few slaps in the dressing rooms by club’s urchins or threats at machete-point. It is difficult to blame away teams when they start their antics. After all, everything is fair in warfare. Visiting teams walk out of pitches when dubious decisions are taken against them, most times in the closing stages of such stalemated games.
Instances where players have been shown red cards in matches have always been chaotic even in Europe. But, the melee from such a setting ceases when the referee beckons on assistance from his support crew. Of course, players eventually walkout, heads bowed, knowing the implication of not obeying the referees’ instruction. It must be stated here that we have seen several reversals of red cards issued when the defaulting clubs dare to challenge the referees’ decision. Some others have lost such frivolous appeals. Did I hear you say, checks and balances? Absolutely, rending otiose any interference from the fans or should I say the supporters in the interpretation of the game’s rules and regulations. The argument that the fracas arose from a Bendel Insurance player refusing to leave the pitch is weak and laughable. The Benin side’s technical crew surely would have called him out. After all, it won’t be the first time the team’s players would be sent off the pitch.
I’ve asked those who reported the game where the security operatives stood as the visitors were being chased around the premises. What was their job during the match, if they couldn’t arrest one of the buffoons wielding sticks and cutlasses? Or was it that the fans overwhelmed the security men? If yes, who allowed the fans into the stadium? Isn’t that against the Covid-19 Protocols?
What happened in Ikenne last Sunday in the game between Remo Stars and Bendel Insurance was shameful given the way video recordings of the fiasco where the Benin side’s players were seen jumping the stadium’s fence to escape being maimed. What was it that compelled the fans to pursue the players to the point where they had to climb the fence like monkeys? Where were the security men brought to the place to restore peace? The fans snatched the video camera recording the show of shame and deleted what they found, forgetting that many telephone handsets have better pictures from recorded scenes, though this was the most bizarre.
The fans were miffed that the Benin side’s goalkeeper had the temerity to delay the game in its extra minutes’ session as if such acts were alien to the game. What the fans didn’t consider was the game had gone through 92 minutes without a goal. Rather than quietly walk away from the stadium, they chose to give the goalkeeper the beating of his life while watching his colleague escape by jumping over the stadium’s high fence. Did any of the fans consider the possibility of one of the players falling off the wall? It doesn’t matter since the fans chose the jungle justice option, making many people ask where the centre referee was when things went awry.
I laughed my heart off when news broke that the NNL was waiting for the referee’s report when footages of what transpired at the stadium litter the social media. Since when the goalkeeper’s theatrics to delay the game become an offence for the fans to vent their spleen? Had the NNL being beamed live on television, half the story of what transpired in Ikenne would have been told. Little wonder the best we have read from the authorities of our football has been a reminder to the clubs that the venues to league games have not been open to the fans. Isn’t that an acceptance of guilt on the home team which couldn’t stop their fans from gaining access into the stadium to wreak havoc on players and officials?
Players’ brawl during and after matches are legendary. But it is the referees and the federation’s disciplinary body that review the cases and mete out punishments to erring teams. Irate fans, especially the uninvited ones in this matter aren’t involved in handing out justice. In Europe, referee’s reports are sacrosanct. There are also mechanisms to spot offenders through video reviews for those actions which the referee couldn’t pick or forgot to include in his match reports.
Ordinarily, the NNL and its parent body ought to have issued a statement beyond NFF’s reminder to clubs to serve as a deterrent to others. leaving the matter in abeyance in terms of meting out justice is unfair and unjust. Justice delayed is justice denied. Is this what the authorities would have done had one or two Bendel Insurance players slipped whilst climbing the stadium’ fence and died? If we continue this way, league venues would become potential death traps for players, officials and even the irate fans.
Those likely to describe this write up as an alarmist call must please watch the video clips of how the referee who handled the game which ended 1-1 between Shekaru Babes and DMD in Kano. The linesman at the far end was cornered and given the beating of his with law enforcement agents watching in awe. Much as the security operatives tried to free the referee, fans running towards the scene with cudgels, stick and all manner of objects descended on the referee. In fact, one man pretended to be rescuing the referee but repeatedly swept the agonising man’s feet from behind to make him susceptible to his assailants.
The human body is tough. At a point, while watching the video, I thought the referee would be brought out of the pitch dead. Glory to Jesus he escaped from the jaws of death. The centre referee was beaten too but not as much as his assistant. The lanky referee was an artful dodger as he meandered his way through the rain of blows from irate fans inside the stadium in Kano.
Rival teams always constitute problems whenever they meet. Most of the problems from this kind of high voltage matches come from the teams’ overzealous fans trying to press home the advantage one has over the other in the games. One would have thought the organisers of the NNL should have sent the best match officials to Ikenne and Kano to ensure fairness. besides, top members of the NNL ought to have been assigned to watch each of the games for first-hand information in the event of chaos.
It is a shame that match venues in Nigeria don’t have Closed Circuit Cameras to capture volatile scenes such as what we witnessed in Kano and Ikenne to fish out the rampaging fans and criminally minded fellows during stampedes at match venues? If both stadia had CCTV cameras, simple playbacks would have identified the culprits and put a lie to any falsehood from any of the teams. The video playbacks would have effectively guided the disciplinary committee in arriving at a decision.
Culprits caught would reveal others involved in the mayhem for them to face the wrath of the law. Irate fans take the laws into their hands because they know they can’t be caught. The only evidence available to aggrieved teams is the video recordings that these thugs seize from the cameramen and destroy. Fans who destroy video recordings cannot be the visiting teams. In fact, the gesticulations from the home team’s benches during matches help to aggravate things as their fans react violently to such gimmicks even before matches end.
However, media reports suggested that both Remo Stars’ and Bendel Insurance FC’s managements submitted complaints to the organisers, making it imperative on the NFF’s disciplinary committee to adjudicate. Was it the duty of the home fans to interpret the laws to the referee? Was it the task of the home fans to forcibly drag out the players they alleged had a red card? Was it also right for the fans to chase out the visitors to such an extent that they became monkeys by scaling over the high stadium fence?
Players’ antics towards the end of matches are legendary. But such needless delays backfire if the home teams are calm and stick to their game plans. Need I remind readers of Liverpool’s goalkeeper’s 93rd-minute header against West Bromwich Albion to win the match for the Reds 2-1, at a time the visitors were being too defensive and delaying the rhythm of the game unnecessarily?
