Kunle Soname just dragged the entire Nigerian referee system through the mud and held nothing back.
The Remo Stars owner went off at his facilities in Ikenne, Ogun State, laying out a brutal case that Nigerian officiating has turned into a dumpster fire, threatening the whole league. Soname made it clear he was speaking as someone invested in the sport rather than just complaining about calls against his team, and he brought receipts to back up every claim. The guy pointed out that zero Nigerian referees have worked at the Africa Cup of Nations for 17 straight years while officials from way smaller footballing countries keep getting picked, which he said exposes how bad domestic officiating standards have gotten. He argued that sketchy calls in the Nigerian Premier Football League have moved past honest mistakes and turned into a predictable pattern that keeps destroying trust in the competition. Soname referenced multiple video-documented incidents to prove his point, and he deliberately brought up examples from matches between Rangers International and Rivers United alongside his team to show that this mess affects everyone. He mentioned two obvious penalties that got ignored in one Remo Stars match, a foul on his player that refs missed and directly led to an opposition goal, and a legit Rangers goal that got wrongly waved off.
The football stakeholder went after the Referees Appointment Committee at the Nigeria Football Federation hard, accusing the group of totally failing at oversight and actually helping the crisis continue instead of fixing it. He called out the committee for not punishing garbage performances or rewarding good work, and he brought up a specific Insurance FC of Benin incident where a clear penalty box foul got ignored. The committee apparently explained that decision by saying the attacker was in a hot chase and no offense happened, which Soname said made zero sense under any kind of examination. He questioned why the officiating crew got changed just two days before that match and noted that committee chairperson Faith Irabor used to work as a director at the Edo State Sports Commission, suggesting some shady connections might be at play. Soname also ripped into the committee for using the lack of a preseason seminar as an excuse for a blatantly wrong call, saying that explanation basically admitted the whole system has collapsed from within.
The Remo Stars owner demanded major reforms to save Nigerian football from this officiating nightmare, calling for the NFF to create an independent review committee that checks all 10 league matches weekly and names a Best Referee of the Week while punishing terrible or corrupt officials. He pushed for completely gutting and rebuilding the Referees Appointment Committee, insisting that transparent and competent structures with actual integrity are the only way forward. Soname wrapped up by saying Nigerian football deserves way better treatment, with players needing fairness, fans needing honesty, and the league needing real integrity instead of the current broken system, where matches get decided by errors or bias rather than actual skill.
The Remo Stars owner went off at his facilities in Ikenne, Ogun State, laying out a brutal case that Nigerian officiating has turned into a dumpster fire, threatening the whole league. Soname made it clear he was speaking as someone invested in the sport rather than just complaining about calls against his team, and he brought receipts to back up every claim. The guy pointed out that zero Nigerian referees have worked at the Africa Cup of Nations for 17 straight years while officials from way smaller footballing countries keep getting picked, which he said exposes how bad domestic officiating standards have gotten. He argued that sketchy calls in the Nigerian Premier Football League have moved past honest mistakes and turned into a predictable pattern that keeps destroying trust in the competition. Soname referenced multiple video-documented incidents to prove his point, and he deliberately brought up examples from matches between Rangers International and Rivers United alongside his team to show that this mess affects everyone. He mentioned two obvious penalties that got ignored in one Remo Stars match, a foul on his player that refs missed and directly led to an opposition goal, and a legit Rangers goal that got wrongly waved off.
The football stakeholder went after the Referees Appointment Committee at the Nigeria Football Federation hard, accusing the group of totally failing at oversight and actually helping the crisis continue instead of fixing it. He called out the committee for not punishing garbage performances or rewarding good work, and he brought up a specific Insurance FC of Benin incident where a clear penalty box foul got ignored. The committee apparently explained that decision by saying the attacker was in a hot chase and no offense happened, which Soname said made zero sense under any kind of examination. He questioned why the officiating crew got changed just two days before that match and noted that committee chairperson Faith Irabor used to work as a director at the Edo State Sports Commission, suggesting some shady connections might be at play. Soname also ripped into the committee for using the lack of a preseason seminar as an excuse for a blatantly wrong call, saying that explanation basically admitted the whole system has collapsed from within.
The Remo Stars owner demanded major reforms to save Nigerian football from this officiating nightmare, calling for the NFF to create an independent review committee that checks all 10 league matches weekly and names a Best Referee of the Week while punishing terrible or corrupt officials. He pushed for completely gutting and rebuilding the Referees Appointment Committee, insisting that transparent and competent structures with actual integrity are the only way forward. Soname wrapped up by saying Nigerian football deserves way better treatment, with players needing fairness, fans needing honesty, and the league needing real integrity instead of the current broken system, where matches get decided by errors or bias rather than actual skill.
