Again, the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) should be looking for a hiding place because of the continuous shame its members have been subjected to by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Last week, the continent's apex football governing body released the list of referees who will officiate at the forthcoming edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), billed to hold in Morocco and Comoros from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, with 24 teams drawn into six groups of four.
About 94 officials, instructors, and assessors have been selected to feature at the tournament and will undergo rigorous training from November 8 to 13, 2025, in Cairo, Egypt.
While our Super Eagles are among the participating teams at the continental showpiece, no Nigerian referee will again be within the whistling distance of the jamboree. This is because the organisers of the competition again did not find any of them worthy of officiating at the tournament. Nigeria's continued poor representation or lack of it for more than a decade and a half should become a worrisome situation more than ever before and a thumb-down as far as that critical component of football is concerned.
Officials from lesser football nations like Chad, Gabon, Sudan, Niger, Somalia, Comoros, Madagascar, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, DR Congo, and even war-ravaged Libya, among others, made the list. Countries like Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Mauritius, South Africa, and Kenya have multiple representations.
Perhaps the most contemptuous treatment ever meted out to our referees was witnessed at the 27th edition of the AFCON Tournament held in Angola in 2010. Only one assistant referee from Nigeria was considered capable of officiating at the tournament, whereas South Africa had two centre referees and assistants for the tournament. Angola, Egypt and Tunisia, among others, each produced a referee and an assistant. As usual, officials from minuscule countries like Seychelles and the Republic of Benin were given slots as centre referees. Even Saudi Arabia and Iran, two non-African countries, had slots on the list of match officials.
However, while CAF could pick only one assistant referee from Nigeria for the Angola showpiece, the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) selected no fewer than 28 referees and assistants from the country for its 2010 championships across the continent. The question that agitated the minds of the Nigerian soccer family then was: "What problem did CAF see which FIFA did not?"
Shedding some light on the CAF's snub, the President of the NRA, Sanni Zubair, admitted that the whistle men from Nigeria did not meet up with the organisers' requirements for the tournament, noting that the country has only one elite referee who could have made the cut. Among the criteria used were fitness and theory, besides inadequate hands-on experience in handling the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
He noted that being "a FIFA-badged referee does not mean you are qualified. The only elite referees that we have did not pass the tests."
In the 70s through to the 90s, Nigeria was a force to reckon with, and its referees could not be ignored by both the CAF and FIFA in all their championships. At that time, Nigeria was rated the third-best football nation on the continent. By 1994, when Nigeria made its first appearance at the FIFA World Cup Finals, the Super Eagles were ranked the 5th in the world. Its domestic football was vibrant, and the standard of refereeing was very high both at home and abroad. Most of the referees and linesmen, as the assistant referees were referred to in those days, wore the FIFA badges. Refereeing is, no doubt, an integral part of football, and it is quite obvious that the nation's refereeing fortune has nosedived in recent years, consequently going off the CAF's radar.
Notable referees who have done the country proud in and outside the continent included Festus Okubule, R. O. Oyeyemi, Bulus Ishaya, S. Olanrewaju, Reuben Mannok, John Saiki, S. O. Fehintola and Linus Mba. These referees may have hung their whistles, but they left indelible marks on the soccer turf. They were men of honour and integrity who exhibited transparency and displayed total commitment to their trade. Their whistles were not tainted with questionable decisions.
A nation's football is as good as its referees. The low rating of Nigerian referees may not be unconnected with the bad image some members of the NRA have cut for themselves. Allegations of bribery and corruption have continued to plague our domestic leagues. There are numerous instances of matches ending in mayhem because referees and their assistants have compromised. CAF must consider all these situations and would not want the cancer to be transferred to its own organised tournaments.
The NRA needs to purge itself of the corrupt elements in its midst. The NFF also has a responsibility to ensure that the football space is purged of bad eggs. That will be the first step towards restoring the nation's glory in international refereeing.
Finally, both the NFF and NRA must think outside the box. They should be interested in knowing what lesser nations are doing to get CAF's attention and patronage. Enough of the shame!