The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NRA

  • Underage championships will end   cheating-Azeez

    Underage championships will end   cheating-Azeez

     

     

    Age cheating that has become a teething problem in Nigerian sports can be eradicated through regular staging of underage championships in the country, coupled with accurate record keeping.

    Vice Chairman Lagos state FA Tade Azeez who made the submission, said with enough under age competitions in the country the temptation for up and coming players and their coaches to enter into competition they are not qualified for will be reduced if not completely eradicated.

    Azeez who doubles as President of Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) maintained that having accurate record of participants at under age championships is not only the best way of identifying real talents but also ensuring that those who represent the nation compete according to international rules. A situation where a team representing a state or country fails MRI test he observed, is not only embarrassing but portrays the country in bad light

    “Under age competitions remains the best way to fight age cheating.  If you hold under 13 championship every year for instance, and have accurate record of the players taking part in the championship, you will agree with me that it will be difficult for a player who has competed at that level this year to come up again to compete at the same level next year.  The record will be there to weed such people out for the good of the game, “he said

  • NRA wants FIFA to educate stakeholders on new rules

    NRA wants FIFA to educate stakeholders on new rules

    The Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) has called on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to educate stakeholders especially the media and football fans on the new FIFA rules.

    President of NRA, Tade Azeez, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja at the ongoing FIFA Member Association Course for Referees that the awareness was necessary to avoid confusion during matches.

    “It is the first time in the history of football that there are going to have a massive review of the laws of the game, so, it requires so
    much.

    “But for all I know, our season is on, we can’t start interpreting when the season is on, it has to be when a new season will begin.

    “We will take every of our referee through series of seminars we will do to take everybody around it.

    “We will not involve only ourselves, we will have to involve the teams, everybody, so that when certain calls are made people will know why those calls are made.

    “There is an offence you can commit even outside the penalty area that will warrant a penalty kick now; you will be surprise that you can pick offside in the half of an opponent.

    “So, all these things we really have to sit down and ensure that it goes down to the grassroots for everybody to know that this is what football is all about.

    “It’s better for everybody to understand these things including you (media); we have to look for a way to educate the supporters of some of these teams because ignorance is not an excuse.

    “They should not take laws into their hands to say this is what it should be when they don’t really know, so, we have to prepare for it before we start implementing.

    According to Azeez, the ongoing course had afforded the match officials the opportunity to know the new rules adding that efforts must be made to carry the football fans and other stakeholders along.

    NAN reports that FIFA recently reviewed the rules of football among which is, the award of penalties from incidents that occur outside the 18-yard-box, but Azeez said more awareness needed to be created.

    NAN reports that the on ongoing course for match officials’ will end on Friday, while the new FIFA rules will take effect from June 1.

     

  • NRA mourns dead referee

    NRA mourns dead referee

    The South/West zonal Co-ordinator of the Nigeria  Referee Association (NRA) James Odeniran has condoled with the Lagos State Referee Council and the family of Basit Giwa who died during the 2015 Football Referee’s Fitness Test held at the Lekan Salami Sports Complex Adamasingba, Ibadan over the weekend.

    While reacting to the ugly incident, the retired FIFA referee, who doubles as the Chairman of Oyo State Football Association, explained how the organiser of the event did everything  possible to avert the tragedy, but described Giwa’s death as a predestined occurrence by God.

    “We took every precautionary measure before the fitness test was conducted, and that was by ensuring that every participant undergoes a complete medical examination and Basit Giwa was certified fit to participate, he passed his ECG, and blood pressure test very well.

    “He passed the fitness test by completing the race within the stipulated time only for his health to develop issues moments after  the exercise and he was rushed to the nearby clinic with the standby ambulance.

    “It was a few minutes after he was admitted into the emergency ward that he passed on,I pray God gives his family and Lagos State Referee Council and the NRA the fortitude to bear irreparable loss”, Odeniran noted.

    The Nationwide referee has been buried according to Islamic rites by his family in Lagos on Tuesday.

    It would be recalled that two referees: Olatunde Oyetola of the Oyo State Referees Council and Matthew Faloye from Ogun State slumped and died during a Cooper test in Abuja in 2011.

  • Officiating in Glo Premier League has improved — Association

    Officiating in Glo Premier League has improved — Association

    The Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) yesterday said that officiating at the ongoing 2013/2014 Glo Premier League (GPL) has improved tremendously.

    NRA Chairman Ahmed Maude told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the body would not rest on its oars in ensuring continued improvements in officiating. The league kicked off on Feb. 24 and is currently in week 4.

    “I think our series of training and seminars are finally paying off but that is not to say that we will go to sleep, we intend to sustain this and even improve on it. I will attribute this to improvements in the commitment of the League Management Company (LMC); they have improved the welfare package of referees, which is laudable.

    “LMC has promised to review match officials’ welfare packages by the mid season. These are the incentives that we have been clamouring for and I’m optimistic that it will only get better,’’ Maude said.

    NAN reports that the body organised a fitness clinic on Nov. 5 2013 as part of preparation for the 2013/2014 league season.

  • Enterprise Bank risk management ‘second best’

    The effort of the management of Enterprise Bank Limited of building a sound financial institution was at the weekend recognised and rewarded as second best in the country at the maiden edition of the Nigerian Risk Awards (NRA).

    The award was organised by Conrad Clark Nigeria Limited in collaboration with BusinessDay newspapers and United Kingdom (UK) Institute of Risk Management.

    Also, the Head of Operational Risk Management of Enterprise Bank was also nominated in the “Risk Manager of the Year” category, which was eventually won by the head of Operational Risk Management at Access Bank.

    The NRA is dedicated to recognising and rewarding organisations and individuals who have achieved measurable results through the effective implementation of enterprise risk management principles among other parameters.

    The panel of judges was co-chaired by Dr. Divid Hillson, known globally celebrated scholar from the United Kingdom and Mr. Victor Odozi, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

  • NRA: Family of dead referee wants investigation stopped

    NRA: Family of dead referee wants investigation stopped

    The Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) on Friday said it had stopped further investigations into the death of one of its members, Osita Nwadiashi, who died during the body’s compulsory annual fitness test.

    It would be recalled that Nwadiashi slumped and died on Nov. 6 at the National Stadium, Abuja, during the 2013 pre-season fitness test for the nation’s referees.

    The NRA President, Ahmed Maude, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the relations of the deceased referee prevented them from carrying out an autopsy on the corpse. However, the Referees Committee of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) insisted that the referee had lied about his health status, which contradicted the medical report he presented.

    The NRA president added that it was on the basis of the contrasting report that the body decided to investigate the doctor that issued the fitness certificate to late Nwadiashi.

    “By now, we should have come up with something tangible with regard to the investigations into the circumstances that led to Nwadiashi’s death. But we have stopped because the family members said they don’t want a post-mortem on his corpse.

    “They also said we should stop our enquiries about the doctor that certified him fit to participate in the test, that they have accepted his death in good faith. Rather, they demanded that we release the corpse to them which we did two weeks ago. We took his corpse to his village, Ogwashi-Uku, Delta, where they told us he would be buried. So, I am sure he would have been laid to rest in his home town by now,’’ Maude said.

     

  • 2013/2014 football league : NRA optimistic of improved officiating

    2013/2014 football league : NRA optimistic of improved officiating

    The Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) on Tuesday said that it was confident that the level of officiating in the forthcoming 2013/2014 league season would be of a higher standard.

    The NRA’s Chairman, Ahmed Maude, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the commencement of the 2013 Referees’ Coopers Test that since the commencement of the programme officiating had improved.

    NAN reports that the 2013 edition of the test commenced on Nov.4 in Abuja and would be concluded on Nov.8.

    It had become the practice of the NRA to hold a pre-season fitness test for its referees to ascertain their fitness level ahead of a new season.

    “I am optimistic that we will have a better football season in terms of officiating because of the way the cooper test has been helping us. Ever since we started taking our referees through fitness tests ahead of the new season, officiating of our referees in the various tiers of the league is getting better.

    “And with the sanction we have in place about those that fail who will be relegated to a lower tier of the league, they have been trying in their own way to live up to expectation. So, I believe that the football season we are looking forward to will be better than the ones we have had in the previous seasons,’’ he said.

    NAN reports that the 2013 test which includes both medical and physical exercise is featuring about 300 referees from the six geo-political zones.

  • Inyama carpets NRA on corruption, bad officiating

    Inyama carpets NRA on corruption, bad officiating

    Nigeria National League boss, Emeka Inyama has cried out that the Nigeria Referee Association are the one killing the game of football in the Nigerian leagues.

    The Nigeria Football Federation Board member told SportingLife shortly after NNL’s Board meeting held at the NNL’s Secretariat in Abuja yesterday that if the Nigerian leagues are to be transformed and function well the men of the whistle should have a change of behavior andn rescue the league by shunning bribes from club officials and officiate well.

    “So it is very wrong for Ahmed Maude (President of Nigeria Referee Association) to have alleged that poor remuneration as regards the payment of N14, 000 indemnities of the referees are responsible for corruption among the referees.

    “This is not the first time we are paying this sum of money. The question is who are those bribering the referees? Is it Emeka Inyama? Who are these clubs and are they the one bribering the referees?

    “I went on air last month to say that the problem of our league is referees. A top former referee official wrote me a letter and said I shouldn’t have said so. We shouldn’t support this because a corrupt person is a corrupt person. What of the billionaires and still stealing money. Is it because they are getting a little? That is not true.

    “So it is wrong for Maude to have said that. Because of the amount that it is not much we have encouraged neighbourhood officiating. So there is no referee that goes from Kwara to Maiduguri. For instance Akwa Ibom referee handles a match in Umuahia because it is close by. They don’t pay fro accommodation and feeding. So the money we pay is just allowance. We have encouraged them to have their jobs because this refereeing is just a passion and hobby.

    “A corruption does not have to do with the amount or the quantity. In any case if there is anybody that inducing corruption in the league all clubs must look at themselves. When we held a seminar I begged and begged that clubs should stop giving bribes to referees. If club A and club B refuses to give bribes to referees, we are surely going to witness fair officiating in our leagues.

    “We do not appoint referees and we do not also discipline them. We don’t appoint match commissioners ands we don’t also discipline them. Can’t you guys have pity on us and see how difficult it is to run a good league in this circumstance. You will say this referee has done badly and before two weeks you will see same referee handling another match after we have done a report that he should be dropped.

    “The league will only work 100 percent when the league body has a very big say in the appointment and punishment of referees. For control purposes it may not be given to us otherwise we will be accused of fixing referees and match commissioners. But let us have representatives in these committees for the sake of balance and information. That is the way to go” Inyama advised.