12th March, 2013
Warri Wolves’ Head Coach, Solomon Ogbeide, has said the standard of the Nigeria Professional Football League NPFL will not improve if all the matches are not showing live on television.
Wolves lost their opening match of the 2012/13 season away to Sharks, but Ogbeide is adamant they deserved a point after the referee ruled out a late goal that would have levelled the scores at 2-2.
He told supersport.com that while the standard of officiating in live coverages have been excellent, those in matches not aired have been mostly questionable, and that a solution ought to be found if the league is expected fulfil its potentials.
“If we want to go far in our league, then all matches must be shown live on television, including the matches involving my own team,” he said.
“The referee in the match against Sharks didn’t allow us play, especially in the second half, and I watched Rangers and Enyimba play a standard match because the referee was fair.
“I think the referee did a good job in Enugu because the game was shown live on telly.
“I’m not used to criticising referees or complaining because it cannot change the result. But how can he disallow a goal from a goalmouth scramble?
“It is a shame, and we have to stand up and ensure these lapses are corrected, otherwise we will not have a good league,” he lamented.
Ogbeide said he would use his position as secretary of the Nigeria Coaches Association to drive home the point that there are obvious flaws that must be dealt with for the league to be more competitive.
“I’m happy to say that shortly after being voted in as secretary of the coaches association, we set up a five-man committee to monitor the league so as to tackle all these lapses and put things right.We want to identify the fault and deal with it, whether it’s a coaching, administrative or refereeing problem,” he said.