The League Management Company (LMC) has urged administrators of Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) clubs, to tackle the issue of violence among their fans.
LMC chairman, Shehu Dikko, stated this in a meeting with representatives of NPFL clubs in Abuja on Wednesday.
Dikko urged them to create a peaceful atmosphere at their match venues and be hospitable to their visitors.
He also promised that performances of match officials will always be reviewed, for a better showing and warned against inciting the fans against referees.
“When we mandated the club leaderships to sit together at matches,” Dikko said in a statement.
“The reasoning was that when both leaders are seen in such friendly stance, tension will be reduced amongst their supporters. These fans read your body language and when a club chairman reacts negatively to a Referees’ decision.
“The wrong signal has been sent to the supporters hence I urge you to eschew display of emotions while watching matches. It is your responsibility to lead this campaign for the friendly atmosphere at matches.
“By our assessment, the Referees performed well so far. We know it can always get better and we would strengthen our work with the NFF Referees’ Committee and the NRA to improve on what was obtained but we also want the clubs to realize that decisions cannot always go their way.
“The Referees are human and liable to make mistakes but whenever we have reviewed a match and discovered incompetence, such referees were punished no matter how long it took us to review the game.”
The second stanza resumes on Sunday, May 21.
Comments