NFF president has revealed that Nigerian referees will no longer pay out of pocket for development and training programmes.
Ibrahim Gusau, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has expressed happiness over the number of young referees during the opening of a three-pronged refereeing training in Abuja on Tuesday.
Mr Gusau said he was happy to see so many young people taking part in the training.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Women's Referees' Course is running concurrently with the Futsal Referees' Course.
The course will end on Thursday, with the Elite Men Referees' Course running from 9 to 15 July.
He noted that refereeing, like any activity that involves rigorous physical engagement and endurance, was about youthfulness.
"The biggest problem we have been having in refereeing over the years has been the advanced age of our top referees.
"So, I told the refereeing unit that we must change the template and concentrate on the young ones so that we can accomplish our objective of having our officials at the top end very soon.
"I want to assure you that the NFF will no longer collect any money from any referee for development and training programmes. That has stopped today.
"In spite of our limited resources, we will endeavour to organise these developmental programmes every quarter in order to give our referees the best training possible.
"Our objective is to see them right at the top, and we will continue to support and encourage the work of our referees and the refereeing unit," he said.
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Mr Gusau said from the onset of his administration, he had insisted on an improved welfare package for referees, in order to dissuade them from unethical conduct.
"Our referees must be young, ethically upright, and morally faultless to be able to compete favourably with the very best.
"We will do the best we can to raise a group of arbiters that will always make the country proud."
The leader of the FIFA instructors, Gladys Lengwe, said the team has identified 115 participants as "young, vibrant, and ambitious".
She said that they could also take "refereeing in Nigeria to the next level."
Ms Lengwe said the referees have acquitted themselves well in the fitness test, and look good to also impress in the technical programme.
The NFF General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi; the Permanent Secretary of the Nasarawa State Ministry of Youth and Sports, Isaac Danladi, and members of the NFF Referees Committee were in attendance.
(NAN)
