By Augustine Akhilomen It has been confirmed that the Nigeria Football Federation has retired referee Abiodun Alaba of Ogun State with immediate effect from officiating in the Nigeria Professional Football League.
After a meeting by the Referee committee of the NFF, Alaba, who failed to manage the match situation between Mountain Of Fire Ministry Football Club and Shooting Stars at the Agege Stadium, which was marred by crowd violence last weekend.
The statement reads: “Referee Abiodun Alaba lost absolute control of the NPFL Match No. 223 between MFM FC [Lagos] and Shooting Stars of Ibadan played at the Agege Stadium, Lagos on Sunday, 19 June 2016. He was not able to manage several frustrating antics of players during the match in spite of the helpful support from his assistant referees.
“The Committee recalled that Referee Abiodun Alaba was suspended last season from active refereeing for similar lapses. Since it had become obvious that he is not going to be able to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the Federation to improve on his art of refereeing in the past one year, the NFF Referees Committee has decided to retire him from active football refereeing with immediate effect,” the statement read.