Be fair in officiating, Imo deputy gov charges referees

The deputy governor of Imo State, Prince Eze Madumere, has urged the Nigerian Referees Association (NRA) to be fair in the discharge of their duties or else “we shall live to remain backward in the development of our football.”

Prince Madumere gave the charge on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the 2017 annual conference of Nigerian Referees association, held in Owerri, the Imo state capital.

According to him, the beauty of the game of football lies in the rules and enforcers of those rules, otherwise there “is no football without a referee.”

The deputy governor encouraged members of the association to ensure that that they play by the rules, adding that those “enforcers are you our great referees”.

“I understand the challenges of the welfare of the body. I understand the pain of the hazard you face everyday in the hands of soccer fanatics,” Madumere said.

“It is also because of my love for the game of football that I have been sponsoring my community’s football competition for about 25 years now. This is to help in discovering and developing great talents in the game,” adding that, that has produced some known players, some of who are outside of the country now.

In his speech, the national president of NRA, Tade Azeez, appealed to the Imo State government to continue to give its team, Heartland FC of Owerri, the support now that they are back in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

In his brief remarks, the chairman of Imo State branch of the NRA, Success Anyanwu, stated that this was the first annual conference to be held in the South East.