Nigeria Premier Football League club owners boss canvasses for reduction of referees 

By Saheed Afolabi

The chairman of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) Club Owners association, Okey Kpalukwu has preached for the reduction of referees to officiate matches in the league.

The board member of the NPFL threw his weight behind anyone caught in an unprofessional acts that could taint the league’s image.

The Rivers United boss isn’t convinced with the population of Nigeria referees in NPFL which he believes can’t bring the best out of them.

Kpalukwu said reduction of the referees will give them the room to officiate well and be in line to be chosen by CAF for continental tournaments.

He confessed about the league having referees populating the scarce officiating opportunities which he believes will lead to lobbying for the job.

“There’s the need to have the number of NPFL referees reduced to enable them officiate enough games during the season to stand them in good stead to be picked by Confederation of African Football (CAF) for their games,” Kpalukwu told BSN Sports.

“Right now we’ve too many which leads to some of them officiating just a handful of games, this leads to lobbying by most of them which is not good for our league.

“In addition, let those found culpable of unprofessional acts be punished without delay.”