Chairman, Edo State Sports Commission, Yussuf Alli has called on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Interim Management Committee (IMC) to urgently halt the trend before the league returns to its inglorious past.
Alli who is the Executive Chairman of Edo State Sports Commission (ESSC), revealed that some top clubs in the NPFL are ganging up against Bendel Insurance, a club with a rich pedigree but being seen as a ‘small club’ because it just gained promotion from NNL.
Bendel Insurance remained unbeaten in the on-going NPFL season but Alli claimed the gang-up against the club was particularly terrible in Aba when the team played against Enyimba penultimate week as the referee awarded questionable penalty against the visitors to the chagrin of home fans.
Though Insurance secured a draw in the said encounter, Alli is miffed with the performance of the match officials.
“These guys, the referees are supposed to be unbiased umpires but they are biased, they and their cohorts are killing our league,” the Olympian said. “Their postulation that Bendel Insurance just came from the NNL therefore should be frustrated show their shallow thinking and lack of sense of history.
“It is not in this same country that Leventis United came from the lower division and dominated the FA Cup, Premier League, and even dominated on the continent and all and sundry applaud them?”
“They should have come for a tutorial on how to run a football club successfully and Edo State Government will give them the manual free.
“NFF and the IMC must do something urgently to stop this ugly trend. I advocate severe sanctions for erring officials; this will deter others and stop the trend. As a sportsman I know what it means to be a victim of cheating, that is why till today I advocate a life ban for athletes who take performance-enhancing drugs,” he added.