The Nigeria Football Federation has removed 14 referees from the ongoing Nigeria Premier Football League due to poor refereeing.
This was disclosed to the NPFL’s Chief Operating Officer, Davidson Owumi, in a letter sent on Monday by the federation’s Referees Development Committee/Unit.
Bawa Buhari, Chukwuka Jahlove, Akinwale Tomiwa, Saeed Abdulaziz, Jimmy Aimugbonrie, Brown Ebenezer, and Atuwho Morrison are the referees who are suspended.
The four-match officials participating in the matchday six match between Sunshine Stars and Abia Warriors, Sunday Azi, and Imamu Maliki are the others.
The video recordings of the games in which these NPFL match officials performed poorly were also requested by the NFF’s officiating development unit.
There are two Sporting Lagos games and three Niger Tornadoes matches scheduled.
The host Niger Tornadoes defeated Rivers United 1-0 in their matchday two and they also triumphed 1-0 at home against Bayelsa United on matchday four.
Additionally, the Tornadoes lost their away game against Sporting Lagos on matchday five, 2-1.
The games involved Sunshine Stars vs. Abia Warriors and Sporting Lagos’ matchday six away match against Kwara United, which they defeated 2-1.
Matchday five was between Gombe United and Plateau United and matchday seven’s between Remo Stars and Bendel Insurance are the other games.
“We write to convey the warm sporting regards of the NFF Referees’ Development Committee members to you and the entire Board and Management of the Nigeria Professional Football League,” the letter says.
“Sir, in response to the alleged poor performance of the referees and assistant referees in the NPFL matches that were under-listed, we are required to remove the specifically impacted match officials from the decision-making line in these cases until the relevant technical analysis of such decisions is concluded as to whether the decision was right or wrong.
“In addition, the committee would greatly value having access to the entire video of these matches so that it could properly assess the decisions and actions of these officials.”
