Refs Can Take Bribes as Long as they are Fair

March 31st, 2006 | by: WC Bob |

At the risk of making this blog all about referees today, I can’t help but pass along this story from our good friends in the Nigerian football leagues. Fanny Amun, acting Secretary-General of the Nigerian Football Association, said today: “We know match officials are offered money or anything to influence matches and they can accept it. Referees should only pretend to fall for the bait, but make sure the result doesn’t favour those offering the bribe.” Hmm, can’t help but think that isn’t going to work very well. I wonder why no referees from Nigeria ended up on the final World Cup list.

Tags: Bribery, Nigeria, Referees

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By No Angolan Referees at the World Cup - FIFA World Cup 2006 - Angola World Cup Team Blog | March 31st, 2006 at 12:24 pm

[...] Scanning the list of the referees who have been announced to call the games in Germany this summer and I don’t see one referee from Angola. Africa is represented by referees from Egypt and Benin. It would be cool for an Angolan referee to gain the experience of officiating a game at the World Cup, but like many countries our referees have a long way to go before they become world renowned. At least our referees aren’t making headlines like the news coming out of Nigeria. [...]

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By Nigeria: Come for the Football, Stay for the Machetes - The Offside - The Offside | August 1st, 2006 at 12:38 pm

[...] A few months back on World Cup Blog we reported that referees in Nigeria are sometimes encouraged to take bribes. While this hardly is something we would promote for the Beautiful Game, we are a little more sympathetic towards corrupt Nigerian referees after reading what happened to referee Sani Abiodun this past weekend. [...]

Posted from United States

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