I was very impressed when the NPFL disciplinary committee swiftly slammed very stringent measures on Kano Pillars over their captain Ahmed Musa’s post- match comments, scolding the match referee in a game which they lost. My joy stemmed from the fact that NPFL chieftains their maintained their stands to show that there isn’t any room for sacred cows in the domestic league. Not anymore.
“I’ve been praising the officiating and the progress in the league up until now, but the performance of the officials in this match Day- 9 game made me wonder if coming back to play in the NPFL was the right choice,” the Nigeria international said.
“For the league to improve, we need to address the quality of officiating. Officials must not be allowed to diminish the players’ morale and effort. If I keep witnessing such officiating, I cannot encourage anyone to return to the NPFL, It would be a waste of our efforts if this continues,” Musa said further.
What got me thinking was that the information which resulted in NPFL’s sanctions came from a press release by the club’s media department. They have learned a lesson on how to distil messages sent out to the media for public consumption, going forward. What hit the Pyramid side as an own goal. It also sent a message to big stars in the league not to disparage the game by pouring odium on it.
The NPFL Disciplinary Board fined Kano Pillars N2 million – N1 million for misconduct capable of bringing the game to disrepute and another N1 million for improper conduct of their players and officials. Pillars’ Ugochukwu Gabriel exhibited unruly behaviour during the match. Gabriel, who was sent off against Nasarawa United, was given a nine-game suspension, which began from match day 10. The club, however, reserves the right to appeal the sanctions within 48 hours from the date of notice. This again is another kettle of fish when the chips are down in the closing weeks of the domestic league. We wait.
It is good to note that erring players, officials and coaches are being punished for uncouth comments with their clubs made to pay heavy fines. We haven’t reached the critical stages where every game brings to the fore teams as title contenders and those enmeshed in the murky relegation waters. This stage, sadly, starts in the second round with the fans taking the laws into their hands to cause mayhem. I’m looking forward to seeing how the NPFL body would punish irate fans, the clubs and such clubs’ chairmen who most times look the other way when the thugs who are their fans wreak havoc on match referees and spectators who are focused to flee the stadium.
The disciplinary markers laid in wait for defaulting players, coaches and team officials, underline the seriousness the organisers have attached to discipline. But, it is pertinent to remind the organisers that club officials would soon use their home fans to forcibly get things done their way. It raises the poser of the relationship between NPFL chieftains and the Nigeria Police.
Adequate policing of the premises where games are being played gives the match referees the confidence to do their jobs judiciously, knowing that their lives and indeed all those inside the stadium are safe. One only hopes that the organisers have time tested security architecture to arrest monsters who most times do the biddings of the home teams, especially when the results on the field of play end in defeats.
Mayhem at match venues before, during and after games are mostly engineered by the home fans. No winning away side can sustain any crisis on the field of play knowing that the results are in their favour. There are also instances where some illiterate player, coaches and officials incite the home fans to take the laws into their hands when they deliberately refuse to continue the games on flimsy grounds which are the sole prerogative of the centre referee and his two assistants, not forgetting the match commissioners.
The physical presence of 50 policemen armed with batons and canisters of teargas is grossly inadequate to checkmate irate fans in a capacity filled stadium with a sitting arrangement of 20,000 people. The NPFL officials need to sit with the different State Commissioners of Police to fashion means of policing the premises by ensuring that known troublemakers of home teams are appealed to conduct themselves peacefully. Otherwise, they would be made to face the full wrath of the law, no matter their stature in society.
Those who disturb public peace at match venues are no spirits but people known to everyone in such locations. So, how is it possible for match officials to be maimed and no arrests and prosecutions are made on urchins who caused such bodily harm without wearing masks to hide their identities? Indeed, when such a thing happens, such a club’s chairmen and the chairman of the State’s FA should be told to produce the culprits within specific days otherwise, they would be held culpable.
It would amount to a failure of leadership, if in the coming weeks; we started reading about the atrocities of criminals masquerading as soccer fans in stadiums. No Nigerian blood should be shed on the altar of watching soccer matches live simply because some people aren’t satisfied with decisions taken during matches.
The Nigeria police are our friend but the NPFL chieftains should help them to do their job very well by insisting that all the domestic league clubs at the elite class must play their games with excellent and functional CCTV cameras to capture questionable scenes during games, especially during mayhem.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have vans inside the stadium where anyone caught constituting themselves into nuisance are hauled into the waiting Black Maria vans and driven away to the police station for further investigation. The era where some charlatans move majestically from their seats towards the playing pitches brandishing cudgels and all manner of dangerous weapons to unleash bodily harm on vulnerable match officials is over. It is about time the Nigeria referees’ body take their destinies in their hands by prosecuting club chairmen who fail to arrest thugs who inflict needless bodily harm on match officials.
The referees’ parent body must insist on prosecuting beasts in human clothing at the law courts. Miscreants won’t cease to take the laws into their hands until they know those who are languishing in jail across the country. Need I state the immense pains the battered referees go through in hospital for committing no offence? Only the NFF through its organs can punish erring referees not illiterate fans or ill prepared clubs.
I don’t like to disparage the domestic league because sports, albeit football, is one of the few platforms where Nigeria can be ranked with world-beaters.
