Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has conducted a
physical fitness test for 29 members of Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) as a
criterion to qualify them for Federation of International Football Association
(FIFA) referees.
Mr Linus Mba, the
Technical Adviser to FIFA on referee matters made this known to the News Agency
of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday. He said that the fitness test was
imperative for qualitative representation of Nigeria at the international
level. Mba said that the thrust of the fitness test was not only to list
referees for FIFA but to prevent occurrences of premature death of referees in
active service.
‘’Many referees had
in the past collapsed and died on the field due to heart diseases which they
were ignorant of. “So that is why we are
very much interested in the medical test before anything to ascertain their
fitness level before recommending for FIFA,’’ he said. The FIFA referee
described the exercise as an annual event aimed at preparing referees for
international games.
According to him,
seven referees and seven assistant referees (men), three referees and four assistant referees (women) were invited. Mba
said that four beach soccer and five-aside referees were participating, adding
that the large number of invitees was designed to fill vacuum. He explained
that those who would not make it to FIFA list at the end of the exercise would
be recommended in future to fill vacancies.
Dailytrust
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