In an interview with the first female football referee in Nigeria Mrs. Jamila Buhari (Sat, March 16, 2013 weekly trust). She was quoted as saying “football is my life. I live, 1 eat, I drink, I sleep and 1 wake up with football”
After a careful thought on her statement, I came to realize that football in Nigeria is not just a game but our way of life. Football no doubt is a players’ game with coaches and referees being the most relevant elements in its growth and development.
One of the element people praise less but insult more are the referees due to their ignorance of who referees are and the duties and powers they carried. One question I was tempted to ask my instructor from the very first day I join this great, noble and dynamic association as “Referee in Training” (RIT) was “Who Are Referees”? Hence the need for this write-up.
WHO IS A FOOTBALL REFEREE?
Oxford English dictionary defines referee as an official who controls the game in some sports such as football etc. while
in His article of the Nigeria football referee magazine of June 2011, Mr. 0.0 Olaniyan (FIFARtd) describes referee as a manager of events, activities and proceedings.
Referees along with two other officials officially called assistant referee (AR) or popularly known as lines-men are always dressed in different colour of jersey which differentiate them from both the clubs/teams and goalkeepers.
Referees, the gentlemen of the whistle are the men on the field people all love to hate but remember without these keepers of the rules; a football game loses its taste and objectives and could not progress with any sort of structure or sanity.
Referees play a very important role in the game of football, from keeping the game rolling along andcalling penalties when a rule i% brpken, to making sure the players’ don’t unnecessary hurt each other.
Referees are also responsible for monitoring the game in the spirit of sportsmanship, enforcing the laws of the game and recording all the rule infractions. Each official has his own title and assigned responsibilities. Following are the duties and power of a referee
DUTIES AND POWER OF A REFEREE (Page 24/25 in laws of the game)
Each match is controlled by
a referee who has full authority to enforce the laws of the game in connection with the match to
which he has been appointed. THE NEED FOR
COMPETENCY.
Honby (1995), defines competencies as the ability to do something well. A competent person is one who is performing a particular task effectively. A competency include skills, knowledge, abilities and behaviors demonstrated by a person who show that he has been trained and is capable of certain responsibilities.
As I scanned through the period I spent in this great, 1 dyn
noble and dynamic association, I have seen people who act as if character is the only thing that matters; I don’t think that is true. What you do is also important. Character is the most important thing but it’s not the only thing. If you have any doubts about that consider this. If you had to go into surgery because of life threatening illness, would you be happier having a good surgeon who was a bad person OR a good person who was a bad surgeon? That puts it in perspective, doesn’t it? So competence matters and if the person is going to be on the same team with you, you want competence and character.
My father once told me that, “If you have no confidence, you have fail in the race of life, but with confidence you have won even before you started”. So confidence plays a vital role in football refereeing and is one of the basic materials among competency, character etc. a referee needs in other to carry out his duties more effectively. CONCLUSION
Football is a global sport and its rules must be interpreted and applied with absolute
consistency wherever the game is played. FIFA, CAF, NFF, NRA therefore has a policy of ongoing training and re-training for its referees to ensure that refereeing standards continue to improve and the laws of the game are applied the same way everywhere.
Who Are Referees? THE NEED FOR COMPETENCY
