Row over referees disrupts Nigerian League programme

LAGOS (Reuters) - Confusion over the appointment of referees led to some matches in the Nigerian League to be postponed at the weekend.
Referees appointed by the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) arrived at match venues only to find another set of officials sent by the Nigerian Football League (NFL), the league organisers.
"It was a confusing situation and as a result, the second half of the league could not resume (from a mid-season break) as games were not played," NFA assistant secretary general Bola Oyeyode told Reuters on Monday.
He later explained that matches were played in some venues but that their results would be nullified after a meeting between the NFA and NFL this week.
"Reports have come in that matches took place in some venues after delays. However, their results stand to be nullified," he said.
"The NFL will explain to the NFA board why it violated our order not to continue to appoint referees for league games," he added.
The NFL, formed by club owners in January, began appointing match officials in a bid to end alleged corruption.
NFL spokeswoman Aisha Falode said: "We're not contesting powers with the NFA but we sent our own referees to the games in order to try and reduce corruption that has characterised the league.
Away teams often struggle to win games in the Nigerian League while many teams usually rely on securing points through protests to the league's disciplinary committee.

Eniwoke Ibagere