Category: Featured

A landmark decision by the International Football Association Board (The IFAB) at its 130th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Cardiff, Wales, will pave the way for the introduction of live experiments with video assistant referees in football.
The meeting, held at the St David’s Hotel and chaired by the President of the Football Association of Wales David Griffiths, also saw the most substantial revision of the Laws of the Game get the green light plus key outcomes on other agenda items including “triple punishment”.
The first item on the agenda was the  comprehensive revision of the Laws of the Game an 18-month project of The IFAB Technical Sub-Committee, led by former English Premier League referee, David Elleray.
The IFAB unanimously approved the revision, which they identified as a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to address anomalies and inconsistencies in the Laws.
While the main focus is improving the structure and phraseology with each Law and interpretation now combined, the word count halved and gender neutral language used throughout some For example, the ball will be able to move in any direction from the kick-off rather than only moving forward (Law 8), while a player who is injured by a challenge punished by a yellow/red card can now have a quick  assessment/treatment on the field rather than having to leave the field which gave the offending team a numerical advantage (Law 5). It represents the most comprehensive revision of the Laws ever undertaken in The IFAB’s 130-year history.
With regard to video assistance for match officials, The IFAB approved in principle a detailed set of protocols for the experiments and agreed they should be conducted for a minimum of two years in order to identify the advantages,  disadvantages and worst-case scenarios.
The set of protocols were drawn up by The IFAB’s Technical Sub-Committee, with support from FIFA’s Technology Innovation Department, and followed discussions with the Football Advisory Panel and Technical Advisory Panel as well as football associations, leagues, other sports and technology providers. The IFAB agreed that live experiments should be implemented at the latest for the 2017/18 season.
The expectation is not to achieve 100 per cent accuracy in decisions for every single incident, but to avoid clearly incorrect decisions that are pre-defined “game-changing” situations goals, penalty decisions, direct red card incidents and mistaken identity.
The IFAB agreed to allow one type of experiment, which will involve a video assistant referee having access to video replays during the match and either reviewing an incident on request by the referee, or communicating with the referee pro actively about an incident that he/she may have missed (further information available here).
The experiments will be managed and overseen by The IFAB with the support of FIFA. A university will be selected to conduct a research study, which will focus not only on refereeing but also on the impact on the game itself, including the emotions of the stakeholders, in order to provide the IFAB with a strong basis for the decision-making process.
The IFAB will meet with interested competition organisers and FIFA in the coming weeks in order to define a schedule for the next 24 months. This will include a pre-testing phase with an experiment done in a controlled ‘non-live’ environment as well as referee trainings, workshops and on-site preparation for experiments to be implemented in two testing phases across a number of competitions/leagues. The experiments of testing phase two will be modified based on findings of testing phase one. Further information will follow once the schedule is defined.
Also on the agenda was the so-called “triple punishment” of sending off, penalty and suspension for the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity within the penalty area. After a long debate, The IFAB unanimously approved a new wording for Law 12 as submitted by UEFA and agreed that it should be implemented globally for a two-year trial period followed by a review by The IFAB.
The IFAB also agreed to allow experimentation w ith a fourth substitution in extra time within a competition/league(s) still to be decided on. The aim will be to see whether there is player welfare benefit, whether the fourth substitute is used tactically or genuinely for player welfare, whether the potential use of all four substitutes during extra time (and thus change more than a third of the team) has an unfair impact.
The modifications to the Laws of the Game made at the AGM will come into effect on 1 June 2016. The 131 st Annual General Meeting is set to take place in London on 4 March 2017.

In an interview with the first female football referee in Nigeria Mrs. Jamila Buhari (Sat, March 16, 2013 weekly trust). She was quoted as saying “football is my life. I live, 1 eat, I drink, I sleep and 1 wake up with football”
After a careful thought on her statement, I came to realize that football in Nigeria is not just a game but our way of life. Football no doubt is a players’ game with coaches and referees being the most relevant elements in its growth and development.
One of the element people praise less but insult more are the referees due to their ignorance of who referees are and the duties and powers they carried. One question I was tempted to ask my instructor from the very first day I join this great, noble and dynamic association as “Referee in Training” (RIT) was “Who Are Referees”? Hence the need for this write-up.
WHO IS A FOOTBALL REFEREE?
Oxford English dictionary defines referee as an official who controls the game in some sports such as football etc. while
in His article of the Nigeria football referee magazine of June 2011, Mr. 0.0 Olaniyan (FIFARtd) describes referee as a manager of events, activities and proceedings.
Referees along with two other officials officially called assistant referee (AR) or popularly known as lines-men are always dressed in different colour of jersey which differentiate them from both the clubs/teams and goalkeepers.
Referees, the gentlemen of the whistle are the men on the field people all love to hate but remember without these keepers of the rules; a football game loses its taste and objectives and could not progress with any sort of structure or sanity.
Referees play a very important role in the game of football, from keeping the game rolling along andcalling penalties when a rule i% brpken, to making sure the players’ don’t unnecessary hurt each other.
Referees are also responsible for monitoring the game in the spirit of sportsmanship, enforcing the laws of the game and recording all the rule infractions. Each official has his own title and assigned responsibilities. Following are the duties and power of a referee
DUTIES AND POWER OF A REFEREE (Page 24/25 in laws of the game)
Each match is controlled by
a referee who has full authority to enforce the laws of the game in connection with the match to
which he has been appointed. THE NEED FOR
COMPETENCY.
Honby (1995), defines competencies as the ability to do something well. A competent person is one who is performing a particular task effectively. A competency include skills, knowledge, abilities and behaviors demonstrated by a person who show that he has been trained and is capable of certain responsibilities.
As I scanned through the period I spent in this great, 1 dyn
noble and dynamic association, I have seen people who act as if character is the only thing that matters; I don’t think that is true. What you do is also important. Character is the most important thing but it’s not the only thing. If you have any doubts about that consider this. If you had to go into surgery because of life threatening illness, would you be happier having a good surgeon who was a bad person OR a good person who was a bad surgeon? That puts it in perspective, doesn’t it? So competence matters and if the person is going to be on the same team with you, you want competence and character.
My father once told me that, “If you have no confidence, you have fail in the race of life, but with confidence you have won even before you started”. So confidence plays a vital role in football refereeing and is one of the basic materials among competency, character etc. a referee needs in other to carry out his duties more effectively. CONCLUSION
Football is a global sport and its rules must be interpreted and applied with absolute
consistency wherever the game is played. FIFA, CAF, NFF, NRA therefore has a policy of ongoing training and re-training for its referees to ensure that refereeing standards continue to improve and the laws of the game are applied the same way everywhere.

A landmark decision by the International Football Association Board (The IFAB) at its 130th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Cardiff, Wales, will pave the way for the introduction of live experiments with video assistant referees in football.
The meeting, held at the St David’s Hotel and chaired by the President of the Football Association of Wales David Griffiths, also saw the most substantial revision of the Laws of the Game get the green light plus key outcomes on other agenda items including “triple punishment”.
The first item on the agenda was the  comprehensive revision of the Laws of the Game an 18-month project of The IFAB Technical Sub-Committee, led by former English Premier League referee, David Elleray.
The IFAB unanimously approved the revision, which they identified as a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to address anomalies and inconsistencies in the Laws.
While the main focus is improving the structure and phraseology with each Law and interpretation now combined, the word count halved and gender neutral language used throughout some For example, the ball will be able to move in any direction from the kick-off rather than only moving forward (Law 8), while a player who is injured by a challenge punished by a yellow/red card can now have a quick assessment/treatment on the field rather than having to leave the field which gave the offending team a numerical advantage (Law 5). It represents the most comprehensive revision of the Laws ever undertaken in The IFAB’s 130-year history.
With regard to video assistance for match officials, The IFAB approved in principle a detailed set of protocols for the experiments and agreed they should be conducted for a minimum of two years in order to identify the advantages,  disadvantages and worst-case scenarios.
The set of protocols were drawn up by The IFAB’s Technical Sub-Committee, with support from FIFA’s Technology Innovation Department, and followed discussions with the Football Advisory Panel and Technical Advisory Panel as well as football associations, leagues, other sports and technology providers. The IFAB agreed that live experiments should be implemented at the latest for the 2017/18 season.
The expectation is not to achieve 100 per cent accuracy in decisions for every single incident, but to avoid clearly incorrect decisions that are pre-defined “game-changing” situations goals, penalty decisions, direct red card incidents and mistaken identity.
The IFAB agreed to allow one type of experiment, which will involve a video assistant referee having access to video replays during the match and either reviewing an incident on request by the referee, or communicating with the referee pro actively about an incident that he/she may have missed (further information available here).
The experiments will be managed and overseen by The IFAB with the support of FIFA. A university will be selected to conduct a research study, which will focus not only on refereeing but also on the impact on the game itself, including the emotions of the stakeholders, in order to provide the IFAB with a strong basis for the decision-making process.
The IFAB will meet with interested competition organisers and FIFA in the coming weeks in order to define a schedule for the next 24 months. This will include a pre-testing phase with an experiment done in a controlled ‘non-live’ environment as well as referee trainings, workshops and on-site preparation for experiments to be implemented in two testing phases across a number of competitions/leagues. The experiments of testing phase two will be modified based on findings of testing phase one. Further information will follow once the schedule is defined.
Also on the agenda was the so-called “triple punishment” of sending off, penalty and suspension for the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity within the penalty area. After a long debate, The IFAB unanimously approved a new wording for Law 12 as submitted by UEFA and agreed that it should be implemented globally for a two-year trial period followed by a review by The IFAB.
The IFAB also agreed to allow experimentation w ith a fourth substitution in extra time within a competition/league(s) still to be decided on. The aim will be to see whether there is player welfare benefit, whether the fourth substitute is used tactically or genuinely for player welfare, whether the potential use of all four substitutes during extra time (and thus change more than a third of the team) has an unfair impact.
The modifications to the Laws of the Game made at the AGM will come into effect on 1 June 2016. The 131 st Annual General Meeting is set to take place in London on 4 March 2017.

In an interview with the first female football referee in Nigeria Mrs. Jamila Buhari (Sat, March 16, 2013 weekly trust). She was quoted as saying “football is my life. I live, 1 eat, I drink, I sleep and 1 wake up with football”
After a careful thought on her statement, I came to realize that football in Nigeria is not just a game but our way of life. Football no doubt is a players’ game with coaches and referees being the most relevant elements in its growth and development.
One of the element people praise less but insult more are the referees due to their ignorance of who referees are and the duties and powers they carried. One question I was tempted to ask my instructor from the very first day I join this great, noble and dynamic association as “Referee in Training” (RIT) was “Who Are Referees”? Hence the need for this write-up.
WHO IS A FOOTBALL REFEREE?
Oxford English dictionary defines referee as an official who controls the game in some sports such as football etc. while
in His article of the Nigeria football referee magazine of June 2011, Mr. 0.0 Olaniyan (FIFARtd) describes referee as a manager of events, activities and proceedings.
Referees along with two other officials officially called assistant referee (AR) or popularly known as lines-men are always dressed in different colour of jersey which differentiate them from both the clubs/teams and goalkeepers.
Referees, the gentlemen of the whistle are the men on the field people all love to hate but remember without these keepers of the rules; a football game loses its taste and objectives and could not progress with any sort of structure or sanity.
Referees play a very important role in the game of football, from keeping the game rolling along andcalling penalties when a rule i% brpken, to making sure the players’ don’t unnecessary hurt each other.
Referees are also responsible for monitoring the game in the spirit of sportsmanship, enforcing the laws of the game and recording all the rule infractions. Each official has his own title and assigned responsibilities. Following are the duties and power of a referee
DUTIES AND POWER OF A REFEREE (Page 24/25 in laws of the game)
Each match is controlled by
a referee who has full authority to enforce the laws of the game in connection with the match to
which he has been appointed. THE NEED FOR
COMPETENCY.
Honby (1995), defines competencies as the ability to do something well. A competent person is one who is performing a particular task effectively. A competency include skills, knowledge, abilities and behaviors demonstrated by a person who show that he has been trained and is capable of certain responsibilities.
As I scanned through the period I spent in this great, 1 dyn
noble and dynamic association, I have seen people who act as if character is the only thing that matters; I don’t think that is true. What you do is also important. Character is the most important thing but it’s not the only thing. If you have any doubts about that consider this. If you had to go into surgery because of life threatening illness, would you be happier having a good surgeon who was a bad person OR a good person who was a bad surgeon? That puts it in perspective, doesn’t it? So competence matters and if the person is going to be on the same team with you, you want competence and character.
My father once told me that, “If you have no confidence, you have fail in the race of life, but with confidence you have won even before you started”. So confidence plays a vital role in football refereeing and is one of the basic materials among competency, character etc. a referee needs in other to carry out his duties more effectively. CONCLUSION
Football is a global sport and its rules must be interpreted and applied with absolute
consistency wherever the game is played. FIFA, CAF, NFF, NRA therefore has a policy of ongoing training and re-training for its referees to ensure that refereeing standards continue to improve and the laws of the game are applied the same way everywhere.

The Ancient and noble order of Knight of St. John international, on Sunday the 27th of November 2016, at St. John international grand commandary, initiated new member into the noble ancient order.
The event which started with a celebrated mass, ended up with a ceremonial parade.
Most of the new initiates came from Aba, Umuahia, Okigwe, Mbano, Obowo, Atta, Izombe, Aladinma, Akabo, Orlu, comandaries etc.
The squad leader of 655 Aladinma commandary (one of the new initiates), comrade Lawrence Okoye was appreciative for the honor and said it is a spiritual cross hung on his neck to serve God and humanity all the more.
He promised by the grace of God to do everything within his competence to being compliant to the synopsis and demands of the noble ancient order.
Among those initiated alongside comrade Lawrence Okoye are Hon. Dr. Chris Nwike, Bro Mathias Eboh, Hon. Ugo Anyanwu, Chief C.N Njoku, Hon. Ifeanyi Agwu, Chief Uche Olebara and Louis Uzoma Okere etc.