25 Nigerian FIFA-badged referees defend status, 3 others join cadre

This was confirmed to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by a FIFA fitness Instructor, Emmanuel Imiere, after the 2013 FIFA-badge referees' defence for the 2012/ 2013 season.

The two-day event started on Tuesday with medicals and was concluded on Wednesday with mental and physical fitness tests.

``We have six international men referees with seven assistant referees and they all passed the test to defend their badges with FIFA.

``The four Futsal and four beach soccer referees also passed and out of the three female FIFA-badge referees, only one of them did the test. The other two were excused to come for their tests on a later date.

``There are four new entrants for Women Beach Soccer and Women Futsal, but only three of them passed to become  international referees,’’ he said.

Imiere listed the international men referees as Ago Abubakar, Amao Opeyemi, Odey Ekabatiem, Ogunkolade Bunmi, Ogunyamodi Shina and Wokoma Innocent.

The assistant referees are Abidoye Tunde, Aundugh Robert, Baba Abel, Peter Edibe, Isah Usman, Onumajuru Chukwudi and Sani Zubairu.

Agbo Mark, Ayeni Saheed, Umar Fagge and Umuago Akpome made the Futsal referees' list while Jimeta Abdulrahman, Mohammed Sani, Ogunmuyiwa Jelili and Ushine Michael are the Beach Soccer referees.

The international woman referee, who passed the tests was Nwogu Uloma, while Foluso Ajayi, Okwugba Chibuogo will have their tests on a later date.

The Assistant Women referees are Eloji Stella, Iyorhe Agatha and Momoh Adijat.

Earlier during the exercise, President of Nigeria Referees Association (NRA), Ahmed Maude said the essence of the exercise was to confirm the officials’ fitness level.

``At the end of the season, referees are tested before the start of another season to know their level of fitness to officiate at the international level.

``Before this year’s exercise, we had 28 FIFA-badged referees in Nigeria and for the next football season, we intend to add two women each for Beach Soccer and Futsal.

``Also for this year’s exercise, we invited 31 male national referees out of which 28 of them passed and five females out of which one passed and the others stopped on medical grounds.

``The essence of this invitation is for us to fill the vacant positions that may be available if any of the badged referees is unable to defend his or her badge.

``For now, we have only one vacant position for women referees because Agudosi Grace has reached 45 years, which is the retirement age.

``So, we will fill the space from one of those that passed and wait to see how those that have not been tested will perform,’’ he said.

Maude, however, attributed the officiating success in the 2011/2012 season to hard work and selection on merit.

``Referee cannot be built in one day or one year, we have been doing the homework by trying to get younger and good referees since I assumed office in 2006 and we have started reaping what we have sown.

``So, it is not a day's job, we have been building this for the past six years.

``One of our referees, Peter Edibe, has been selected for the 2014 World Cup and he is undergoing training now.

``There are others that have been selected for different competitions. Hopefully, we should get what we deserve and Nigeria deserves nothing less than three referees to represent us in the next Nations Cup in 2013,’’ he said