Based on the biased officiating that is wiping off the gains made at the beginning of the 2023 NPFL football season, Nigeria sports legend, Yussuf Alli has called on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and IMC to urgently halt the trend before the league returns to its inglorious days.
Alli, who is the Executive Chairman of Edo State Sports Commission (ESSC), revealed that some top clubs in the NPFL are ganging against Bendel Insurance, a club with a rich pedigree, which they see as a ‘small club’ because it just gained promotion from NNL and it is dominating giants and has remained unbeaten this season.
Since the 2023 season began Bendel Insurance has been in splendid form winning home and away.
“The gang-up against the club was particularly terrible in Aba when the team played against Enyimba penultimate week. The referee gave a questionable penalty against Insurance, a decision that even the home team supporters find strange,” Alli claimed.
Despite intimidation from the referee, the Benin Arsenal still managed to leave Aba with a point. If referees are hostile to the club away, their home games are not different, but Alli said the referees are also playing against the Benin Arsenal in their home matches.
Said Alli, “These guys, the referees are supposed to be unbiased umpires but they are biased, they and their cohorts are killing our league. Their postulation that Bendel Insurance just came from the NNL therefore should be frustrated show their shallow thinking and lack of sense of history.
It is not in this same country that Leventis United came from the lower division and dominated the FA Cup, Premier League, and even dominated on the continent and all and sundry applaud them.”
Alli posited that instead of being envious and ganging up to destroy the good work of the Edo State government and the management team of Bendel Insurance “they should have come for a tutorial on how to run a football club successfully and Edo State government will give them the manual free
