NRA Organises Seminar For Referees, Assistant Referees Others

In a bit to have quality officiating for the upcoming 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season, the Nigeria Football Referees’ Association (NRA) in conjunction with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has organised a ten day intensive programme for football referees, assistant referees and referees’ assessors at Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja, recently.
The programme which was well attended by all invitees received lectures on how to improve referees, assistant referees and referee assessors, mostly on practical field experience.
Speaking to newsmen at the sideline of the programme, the President of Nigeria (Football) referees’ association, Hon. Alhaji Sani Zubairu said the exercise is an annual event for Nigeria Football Referees towards kick- off of every football league season.
“This is an annual event we usually organise towards commencement of the League and before commencement of the second stanza’ he said
Alluding the assertion of the President, the Chairman Nigeria Football Federation Referees’ committee Faith Iraboh says “The football season is going to kick off in the next two weeks and to us, we need due diligence in preparing the referees, and assistant referees for the upcoming season and also the referee assessors. We took one week to take care of IFAB amendments of the laws of the game and its application. We went through looking at the laws, with football teams practicalizing it in the field of play.
The referee’s committee chairman asserted that much is expected from the referees, assistant referees and referees’ assessors measuring what was impacted in them throughout the exercise.
“Last year the performance of the referees was a little above average this year we expect the referees to perform optimally. We have tested them on the physical fitness and also on the laws of the game to know how well they assimilated what they were taught. This season, l am confident, going by the training they will do better than the last season”
“For the assessors, they are the guidance to the referees; they were told what is expected of them to be referees role models and mentors. The assessors were also engaged in the practical models of assessments, and they were tested on what they were taught”.