Ogunmuyiwa Hails NFF President As He makes History

Nigerian Referee Jelili Ogunmuyiwa was full of praises for NFF President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick after making history on Sunday as the first Nigerian in decent memory to take charge of a CAF Championship final.

Ogunmuyiwa, 36, was selected by the Confederation of African Football to take charge of the final match of the 2015 African Beach Soccer Championship, between Madagascar and Senegal in Victoria, Seychelles.

An international referee since 2008, Ogunmuyiwa almost missed the tournament as Immigration officials moved to stop him from boarding the flight to Seychelles in Lagos, because he did not have an entry visa into the Indian Ocean Island, venue of the competition.

“I am so, so happy to officiate the final match in Seychelles. It is a dream come true for me. But it would have remained just a dream if not for the intervention of the NFF President, Mr. Amaju Pinnick. He personally intervened with the Immigration people to allow me board the flight to Seychelles, explaining to them that I have a letter from CAF and that I would be given my visa on arrival.

“The NFF President’s personal efforts and that of the new Board are working well for Nigeria football. I want to sincerely appreciate him.”

In Seychelles, Ogunmuyiwa, described by NFF Consultant on Refereeing and FIFA Technical Advisor (Refereeing), Mr Linus Mba as one of the best referees Nigeria can boast of at the moment, was 1st Referee for the matches between Senegal and Morocco, Ghana and Morocco, Seychelles and Egypt and Morocco and Seychelles, before taking charge of the final, which Madagascar edged 2-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw with Senegal.

On assumption of office at the end of September 2014, the present NFF administration led by Mr. Amaju Pinnick had promised to thoroughly enhance the capacity of Nigerian referees, with a vision to see a Nigerian referee officiate at the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia.

Two batches of 10 and 20 referees have gone to the United Kingdom on capacity –building programmes (Ogunmuyiwa was in the second batch in February), with a third batch of 20 to depart for a similar programme next week.

“I must say that the efforts of the new NFF administration are yielding dividends. I have received reports from high quarters that the profile of Nigerian referees is rising,”

FIFA Technical Advisor Linus Mba said on Monday. Ogunmuyiwa lectured fellow arbiters at the pre-Season Seminar organized by the NFF early March.

Nigerian referee Ferdinand Udoh was selected toofficiate at the 2015 African U-17 Championship in Niger Republic, and assistant referee Abel Baba was also in action at the 2015 African Youth Championship in Senegal.

Referee Joshua Opeyemi Amoo will also lead Peter Edibe, Abel Baba and Abubakar Ago to officiate a CAF Confederation Cup second round, second leg match between ASEC Mimosas of Cote d’Ivoire and Onze Createurs of Mali in Abidjan next week.