Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) chairman, Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye has bemoaned some incidents of poor officiating in the league as being his greatest constraint or headache.
While speaking exclusively to us in an interview, the astute politician cum football administrator queried some questionable officiating by some referees that doesn’t portray the league in good light and threatens to rubbish all the good works put in by his board to reposition the league.
“It’s heartbreaking and mind blowing when you see some officiating and you wonder how come?
“Some are so glaring for all to see such that even a non referee couldn’t have made such a questionable call.
“This has become a major challenge which we are working assiduously round the clock to see how we can address the problem permanently or at least reduce it to the barest minimum.
“Don’t get me wrong there have been some excellent refereeing but these bad eggs are what we are trying to expunge from the league.
Elegbeleye, a former deputy chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Youth and Sports, also lambasted the activities of some journalists who he described as reporting and seeing only negative things about the league which belongs to us all.
“I may be the chairman of the league board today and tomorrow it may be you or someone else, so why must we not join hands together to build our league instead of trying to destroy it.
“Constructive criticisms and ideas are fine but not those who doesn’t see anything good in the league only negativism.
The former Director-General of the National Sports Commission, who also headed the Interim Management Committee (IMC) last NPFL season, however vowed to leave a much desired league behind that everyone will be proud of and that can compete with top leagues in the world.
“We are certainly not there yet but everyone can attest that the league has made some improvements and it’s
better than we met it.
“My desire is to leave behind a league that will be better in all ramifications and that can compete with some of the best leagues in the world”, he said.
Meanwhile, the new NPFL board has a two-year tenure, same as the boards of the Nigeria National League, the Nigeria Women Football League and the Nigeria Nation-Wide League One to carry out their mandate.
