The commendation seems to corroborate the impression expressed by football analysts during the just concluded season. As I stated in one of my previous write-ups for this column, I can assure that there has been a sustained drive for good refereeing in Nigeria over recent years fuelled by well-coordinated development programme by the NFF.

Part of the current Law (as it was until 30 June 2009 ) states among other issues that ‘a defending player who deliberately steps over the goal line into his team’s goal, (which is technically outside the field of play) in an attempt to place an attacking player technically in the offside position is to be regarded as having behaved in an unsporting manner

The award of a last minute penalty kick in our Nigerian football competitions is capable of provoking team officials and their fans to pull down the stadium. But the award of penalty kick at the last minute is part of the game.

I will be serving the readers with answers to technical questions and often scratching deep into the spirit behind the laws that confuse when applied in the matches readers observe. We are also going to use this forum to often x-ray developments in football refereeing from international bodies such as FIFA, CAF and WAFU as well as Nigerian referees’ designations.