Chairman, Referees Committee of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Muazu Suleiman, on Monday said match officials’ reports would henceforth be submitted online starting from the 2013/2014 season.
Suleiman, also a member of the NFA board, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the move was to ensure the prompt submission of match reports.
Suleiman told NAN that the committee had launched its website, www.nffrefereescommittee, where the referees could among other things fill the match reports form and send it within 24 hours.
“We have already launched our website, which will serve as the avenue where they will fill the form and send to us within 24 hours.
“With this development, all our referees must be Information Communication Technology (ICT) compliant.
“This is because we want more transparency in our officiating and we don’t want our reports to stay for many days before they will be submitted.
“We want to get our reports as early as possible so that we will review and take actions on them if necessary, and any referee who fails to abide by this will be greatly punished,’’ Suleiman said.
He also said another reason for the website launch was to make the laws of the game and its amendments available to the public.
“With this website, football-loving Nigerians will have access to the laws of the game as well as the amendments in it.
“This way, they will know the reason why referees take some decisions, instead of just judging them with the usual layman information,’’ Suleiman said.
The committee chairman added that the website would make Nigerian referees available to the international world.
“We want to be very close to the international community, so that anywhere Nigerians are, they can access us.
“That will also put our referees on the guard and expose them to the international world and everybody will be able to see what is happening to us.
“It is just like when showing a live match, referees will be more diligent,’’ Suleiman said.
