Nigeria’s most celebrated referee of the moment, Yemisi Eunice Akintoye, has acknowledged the importance of technology in match officiating but pointed out that the arbiter must still be fitter than every player on the pitch.
Sports247 reports that Akintoye, who recently made history when she took charge of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON 2026) semi-final clash between Algeria and Malawi, admitted that Video Assistant Referee (VAR) makes the task easier, but stressed that match officials must be in peak physical shape all the time.
Akintoye, who became a ref in 2012 and got her FIFA badge in 2021, revealed several other issues concerning handling of the whistle during matches while speaking on ‘Hot Seat’ segment of Sports247’s television programme, ‘Inside Naija Sports,’ which streams online via YouTube and airs every Saturday at 12pm on NTA News 24.
While stressing that fitness is the biggest asset that a referee needs, Akintoye said it’s the reason why the training programme for match officials in Africa lays emphasis of physical drills – to always keep them in the best shape possible.
“Here in Africa, we mostly put our focus on physical fitness, but it’s different from what players do on the pitch. We have to follow the ball all the time, while a player can rest after passing to a teammate.
“While one player or the other can rest at a point during the match, the referee must go everywhere all the time,” said Akintoye, who is a graduate of Human Kinetics from the University of Lagos.
She then spoke about some modern strategies that have been put in place to make the referee’s task easier, considering that errors must be avoided during games, in order to remove instances of complaints by teams and their fans.
“Some instructors have made it easier for us nowadays in two ways. There’s what we call gate concept and action concept, which means you don’t have to run around the field all the time.
“You can mentally mark out a particular place that you will approach more when the game is on. There’s also the use of VAR in top tournaments. If you miss an incident on the pitch, you have an opportunity to check it on VAR.
“All these innovations have made refereeing easier, and they help us to avoid costly mistakes during matches. However, a referee still has to be very fit in order to be at the right spot when an incident happens.
“It’s when you are not there when an incident happens and you don’t see it that people will complain. Something like that will become a problem during a match;” Akintoye warned.
She then expatiated on the issue of VAR and pointed out that it is only meant to guide the centre referee, who still has the final say on which decision to take after watching the playback of an incident on the monitor.
“It’s not every incident that VAR will help you check. It has a protocol to follow regarding particular incidents. VAR has to follow the protocol on how and when to intervene.
“What happened during my game in the WAFCON semi-final was that there was a red card incident, but I gave a yellow card. VAR then alerted me about it and suggested that I should go to the monitor.
“So, they highlighted the incident on the monitor. That gave me a second opportunity to see the incident again and check carefully to see how it happened.
“The person behind the monitor is also a referee. So, we’ll discuss the incident. It would then be left to me to use my discretion and my own knowledge about the laws of the game to inteprete the incident.
“It’s also up to me to take a final decision on the incident. VAR will not decide for you. So, I will take my decision based on what I see from various angles on the monitor,” Akintoye concluded.
Sports247 reports further that Akintoye, who is the founder of Female Young Girls Bootcamp (FYGB) project and CEO of Mitsy Photography Studio, was a centre ref in two games at WAFCON 2026 and fourth assistant for three.
