The just-concluded EkoFootball U15 Tournament saw some impressive performances from young players and from the young match officials as well.
The quartet of Idayat Hussain, Gbemisola Yusuf, Gift James, and Amidat Ojo carried out their officiating duties with distinction which has drawn praise from the local media.
The Lagos state football referees council secretary Dele Atoun praised the young referees for a job well done. Atoun also pointed out that there are many such promising match officials all over the state.
“You must have seen these four referees but Lagos state referees are much more than these four. We have a lot of young referees all over Lagos,” Atoun told Sports247.
“We have others like Olawale, Adeola, Gafar, Waris and so many other young referees all over the local government areas in Lagos state.
“These ones part of this competition (Ekofootball U15 Tournament) have done well. Others part of other competitions are also doing very well.”
The retired ref cited the unfavorable conditions in which most referees in the country’s leagues are left to officiate as a factor for incompetent refereeing occasionally.
“Talking about if the officiating like this can be in the NPFL; the referees in Nigeria are good but you can also agree with me that in games like this there is nothing like insecurity like we have in some other leagues.
“Some things that we see some referees do in our league is not because they don’t know what they do or a matter of incompetency. It is because of the environment that they operate in.
“If our referees operate in better conditions they will do better. We have quality referees in Nigeria in all the grades.” Atoun concluded.
