VAR will curb bad officiating in NPFL– Dimeji Lawal

Following the rising wave of fans’ violence over poor officiating in the ongoing Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season, a former Nigerian international, Oladimeji Lawal, has called for the introduction of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) technology in the league. The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who assists the referee […]

Following the rising wave of fans’ violence over poor officiating in the ongoing Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season, a former Nigerian international, Oladimeji Lawal, has called for the introduction of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) technology in the league.

The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those reviews.

Following extensive trialing in a number of major competitions, VAR was formally written into the Laws of the Game by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) on March 3, 2018.

Operating under the philosophy of “minimal interference, maximum benefit”, the VAR system seeks to provide a way for “clear and obvious errors” and “serious missed incidents” to be corrected.

The four main categories of decisions that can be reviewed by VAR are: goal/no goal, penalty/no penalty, direct red card as well as mistaken identity.

The immediate past General Manager of 3SC football club of Ibadan believes the introduction of VAR in the Nigerian topflight would help curb the dubious calls by some of the referees.

Recently, the referees who officiated the Kano Pillars vs 3SC and Nasarawa United vs Enugu Rangers, all NPFL week 8 matches, were suspended by the league organisers over poor performances.

Reacting to the recurring cases of biased officiating and hooliganism in the NPFL, the former Real Madrid B player, popularly called “Kabongo” maintained that VAR would help sanitise officiating in the NPFL.

“We will continue to have problems all over, because the situation on ground is helping the corrupt referees to perpetuate their intentions.

“Nigeria is rich enough to invest in VAR. This will definitely help the good referees and also curb the bad ones. We should endeavour to upgrade our standard,” Lawal wrote on his Facebook page.