The chairman of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), Honourable Gbenga Elegbeleye, has come out with reasons why the much-expected advent of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) into the domestic competition will no longer take place next season.
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Sports247 gathered that many stakeholders, lovers of the Nigerian league and officials of all the competing clubs had already started looking forward to the arrival of VAR in the next contest, following a pledge in that regard by Elegbeleye during the past season.
However, the former director-general of the National Sports Commission (NSC) has recanted by pointing out that issues of technical expertise, non-availability of personnel and lack of finance have forced the NPFL to rethink the plan.
He stated further, though, that the top shots of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are in full support of the installation of VAR into venues for domestic league matches and noted giant steps both governing bodies have so far taken in that direction.
Elegbeleye disclosed, “NFF shortlisted 10 of our referees who are computer literate to go to Morocco for training. We, as a league, also had online meetings with manufacturers of VAR and producers of the machines.
“But, after doing all that, we have now realised that, before you can implement VAR for matches, you must be able to use communication gadgets, and you don’t need to go all out in watching TV or the screen.”
The soft-spoken administrator then gave a breakdown of the intricate steps that need to be taken by officials who might be assigned to man the VAR cubicle at any NPFL match venue.
“You must be able to communicate with officials in the VAR room to know what is right or wrong. Secondly, you must be computer literate. Fortunately, during the last recruitment of referees, NFF insisted on computer literacy before you could allow anybody to be part of it.”
He concluded by admitting that another major issue affecting the implementation of VAR in Nigeria’s domestic league is money matters, towards which he disclosed that the NPFL has already launched efforts in getting corporate bodies to fund the project.
“The stage we are now is that we are looking for sponsors to be able to acquire VAR machines. We are ready to go the way of VAR but, unfortunately, the machines are quite expensive,” Elegbeleye confessed.
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