Scores of football Match Commissioners in Nigeria’s domestic league lose their jobs after the Match Commissioners’ Appointment Committee of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) rolled out new criteria as qualification benchmark for individuals to meet before they are considered for the role of a Match Commissioner.
The NFF in a publication on Friday announced the new criteria put in place by the newly inaugurated Match Commissioners’ Appointment Committee which seek to lean the system and ensure much more competence in the hands into which the crucial role of football match commissioning is handed to.
At its inaugural meeting at the Federal State of Abuja on Wednesday, the Chairman for the NFF Match Commissioners’ Appointment Committee, Alhaji Babagana Kalli made known the new reforms and criteria put in place, which will, for the first time, forbid persons “above the age of 65 or below 30” from taking the job of a Match Commissioner.
The new criteria has also seen the names of all retired referees wiped out of the list of match commissioners, and with entirely new national identifications to be used as means of identification and qualification of an individual to be considered for the role.
“In addition, we have now expunged the names of all retired referees from the list of match commissioners. Means of identification would now be by international passport, national identity card of driver’s license, and computer literacy is now a key requirement for anyone who wishes to be considered for the role of match commissioner in Nigeria”, the NFF added in a publication on Friday.
The NFF expressed concerns over cases of bloated number of match commissioners in the Nigerian domestic game as against the number of matches that are played over a season. The NFF Vice President Barr. Seyi Akinwunmi who represented the President, Amaju Pinnick at the function, described the current number of Match Commissioners in the country as “bogus”, according to the NFF. He added, that the role of match commissioner must be entrusted into very best hands.
“We must also select the very best hands for these important roles without any form of primordial sentiments.”
