Livid with rage over the
questionable officiating
against Nigeria at the on-
going African Cup of
Nations, the Nigeria
Football Federation, NFF has fired a protest letter
to the Confederation of
African Football, CAF. Technical Committee
Chairman of the NFF,
Barrister Chris Green
confirmed that they have
protested to CAF to look
into the questionable calls by referees in the two
matches so far played by
Nigeria. “We’ve registered our
protest to CAF. The whole
thing is annoying”, Green
said at the Stay Easy
hotel abode of the NFF. Present Eagles Super Eagles coach,
Stephen Keshi had
complained about the poor
officiating that saw the
Eagles receive five yellow
cards and one red card in their first match against
Burkina Faso which ended
1-1. And in the second
match, what seemed like a
penalty for Nigeria against
Zambia was denied when Ahmed Musa was viciously
hacked down inside the
box. Not only that, the
Egyptian referee that
officiated the match
against Zambia murdered
sleep when he awarded a
questionable penalty against Nigeria to allow
the defending Champions
share the spoil at the end
of proceedings. Eagles goalkeeper, Vincent
Enyeama was so pained
that he described the
penalty award as
‘bizarre’. “That is the
worst penalty call I’ve ever since in my life. It’s
bizarre. It’s a weak call
and I’m mad about it”,
the ordinarily quiet
goaltender boiled. Keshi summed it up when
he said that “I want
people to look through the
replay and judge if indeed
it was a penalty”. South African TVs have
been replaying the penalty
call to show that the call
was indeed bizarre with
many soccer fans criticizing
the level of officiating at the Nations Cup.

Agreed. But everybody knows that a 1-goal lead isn't worth resting upon until the final whistle is heard. Why can't our boys convert chances and place themselves in comfortable leads?