Why Nigerian football referees are marginalised- Obafemi

Having reached the pinnacle of your career in the university, how happy are you?I feel highly fulfilled having served for 32 years in this system. The Registrarship position is the peak of my career and I feel completely fulfilled and excited. I give glory to the almighty God for allowing me to reach the pinnacle […]

Having reached the pinnacle of your career in the university, how happy are you?
I feel highly fulfilled having served for 32 years in this system. The Registrarship position is the peak of my career and I feel completely fulfilled and excited. I give glory to the almighty God for allowing me to reach the pinnacle of my career.
You were also a FIFA graded referee. How did that happen?
Yes, I was an international referee for nine years. I was in the University of Ibadan where I studied. I was playing football and when I discovered that football playing was taking so much of my time, I then decided to go into refereeing. I joined the Oyo State Refereeing
Society then from which I started learning the art of refereeing. In 1976, I became graded. At grade 3, I moved on, I graduated in UI and came to Kwara and then after joining Kwara Referee Council, I got promoted to grade two and then grade one. In 1991, I got appointed as an International Referee by FIFA.
Could you share your experience as a FIFA graded referee?
It was beautiful. At that time, I was the foremost referee in Nigeria and I traversed all over the continent and even up to Europe because I was fortunate to officiate in the Under 20 World Cup in Qatar in 1996. I refereed in the World Cup at that level. Again that was the pinnacle of my career because I didn’t have age on my side. It was during that period that FIFA now gave retirement age for FIFA refereeing to 45.
So, after I refereed in Qatar it became difficult for me to get to the big World Cup because as at the time they were going to stage the next World Cup, I had reached the 45 years so I had to retire. But I must say that it was a very fulfilling time. Now I am still involved in football administration because I am now CAF instructor in refereeing matters to referees and I am also CAF match commissioner, FIFA Refereeing Assessor and so on and so forth. So, I am still moving around.
How were you able to manage the two careers- refereeing and university administration?
All the time I had appointments, the university was kind enough to release me and as soon as I came back, I sat down to do my job. So, I was able to manage refereeing as well as manage my job. I left FIFA in 1998 but I have not quit refereeing. I am still in it because I am now an instructor and CAF can call me anytime to go to Ghana, English speaking countries of West Africa, to go and teach refereeing and FIFA can also designate me to go and be a match commissioner. So, I am still in it. The only thing is that I don’t blow whistle again.
What is your assessment of the performance of Nigerian referees?
It is not that they are not internationally rated, they are. We have referees that are doing well. The only thing is that at our level, our penmen are not projecting them because I was really projected no doubt about that. I will not say they are not doing well. So, you know they have appointments almost every week. In my time, any match I had would be blown and it would be read by everybody. Today, if they have matches people hardly know. That is why people think they are not doing well. They are doing well. They are still some of the best in Africa. The only thing is that there is need for Nigeria to play the politics of football. We need to play the politics of football to get our referees recognised, appointed and to get them used by CAF and FIFA. If you don’t play this politics, it is going to be difficult.
What manner of politics are you talking about?
That you have somebody in the referees’ committee who can at every point in time call the names of Nigerian referees to be designated for matches. If you don’t have may be the person that is representing your zone in the committee, you must be familiar with him so that at any point in time, his name would be mentioned because somebody must mention somebody’s name before he would be designated. So if all the people sit down and nobody mentions your name, your name cannot fly in from heaven. So, the politics I mean is that somehow, somehow Nigeria should try and get used to some of the top notchers of CAF so that our referees can also be equally recognised like others are recognised.
What is the problem with the Nigerian sports sector generally?
Yes generally Nigerian sports if I may talk about football that I am very familiar with, I think we need to allow coaches that are appointed time to settle and do their jobs. Nigerians are too eager to win. They don’t believe that there is any need to plan, to groom people. They just believe that, ‘appoint a coach, coach must bring players together and he must be winning’, it is a difficult thing to do. Some countries will put their players in camp for two years because they want to prepare for World Cup. Definitely those players are ready but in Nigeria, you bring a player today, next tomorrow, he plays a match even if he is a machine, he still needs to work with people and so in Nigeria, we are too much in a hurry to win. Nobody in Nigeria believes that they can lose a match and that is why some of the time we are not doing well, that is one. Two: preparation for sporting activities in Nigeria is not the best, you see us wanting to win yet we don’t prepare well, it is fire brigade. If this thing is taking place in three months time, we would wait till two weeks before we start running around, that is not what sport is. Sport is a long term preparation. Even me as a referee, when I know I have a big championship ahead of me, there were so many things I didn’t do. One, I will not eat what I should not eat, I will not socialise so that I can be in top form. So it is for sports, if you don’t prepare, you can never win, you can never make it. So, in Nigeria we really need to give room for long term preparation and to also allow people we put at the helms of managing preparations to manage them thoroughly without interference, without wanting to win, win, win. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and you prepare better if you lose so that you can win.