The Digest:
For the 19th consecutive year, no Nigerian referee or assistant referee was selected to officiate at the Africa Cup of Nations, with the recently concluded AFCON 2025 featuring 73 match officials, none from Nigeria. Stakeholders attribute this prolonged exclusion to systemic failures, including low competence, corruption, favouritism, poor physical and technical test results, and lack of VAR exposure. Former referees and analysts told NAN that the NFF Referees Committee operates as a "business centre" where merit is neglected. No Nigerian referee has ever officiated at a FIFA World Cup, and prospects for the 2026 tournament remain bleak. Former FIFA-badged referee Ferdinand Udoh cited match-fixing scandals, diversion of FIFA referee development funds, and victimisation of whistleblowers as impediments. Others noted Nigeria's diminished voice in CAF and FIFA committees since the era of Dr. Amos Adamu.
KEY POINTS
- The 19-year AFCON absence and complete World Cup void constitute a major embarrassment for Nigerian football.
- It reflects deep-seated structural corruption and systemic neglect of referee development at the NFF.
- Qualified referees are denied opportunities, while compromised officials occupy FIFA-badged slots without accountability.
- The diversion of FIFA's dedicated referee development funds represents a recurring institutional failure.
- The timing, post-AFCON 2025 and pre-World Cup 2026, amplifies urgency for reform before another tournament cycle passes.
Sources: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), NFF, Ferdinand Udoh
