By Olatunde Tijani
Referees of Ogun State Football Referees Council from across the various societies gathered on Sunday, 24th October, 2021 for the 2021 Pre-Season Fitness Test/Seminar.
The event for this particular year was unique in all sense as it had the top echelon of refereeing body in Nigeria and FIFA instructor and referees in attendance as resource persons.
As early as 6:00am, MKO International Stadium, Abeokuta which was the venue of sporting event started witnessing the assemblage of referees of all cadre in the State with participants who also came in from neighbouring Oyo State. It was a homecoming of sort for the referees who shared banters and complementaries, budded and networked with one another.
In his welcome address, the Chairman, Ogun State Referees Council, Mr. Obayemi Olatunbosun said the purpose of organizing the seminar was to train and retrain referees in Ogun State both physically and mentally to be in tune with current realities in the laws of the game as well as be the best referee and compete favourably with their counterparts across the world. He said that necessitated the bringing these facilitators who had excelled and still doing well in their refereeing career and good ambassadors of the country.
The programme which was a huge success had in attendance FIFA Rtd. Olori Olajumoke Adebisi Odeniran - NRA Training Officer from Ibadan, FIFA Rtd. Engr. Emmanuel Imiere - CAF instructor from Benin and Fifa Jelili Muyiwa from Lagos ably assisted by FIFA Hope Igho and FIFA Usman Olaide.
The day started off with the physical fitness test, where referees participated in warm ups, shuttle dashes and ended up with the traditional timed marathon race ably manned by the seasoned CAF Instructor, Fifa Rtd. Engr. Emmanuel Imiere.
Highlight of the event was the presentation of gifts to five young referees and 2 female referees that were outstanding during the fitness test by FIFA Rtd. Engr. Imiere.
The participants settled for the seminar which was anchored by FIFA Rtd. Olori Olajumoke Adebisi Odeniran and FIFA Jelili Ogunmuyiwa. According to the participants, the seminar and entire event was highly impactful and they were further encouraged by the calibre of resource persons.
The instructors showered encomiums on the leadership of the council for organizing the seminar as well as injecting young ones into refereeing in the state. They all promised to keep supporting the council in her quest to further develop referees in the State.
Olatunde Tijani
Publicity Secretary, OGFRC
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