Ayeni Saheed, FIFA (Rtd.), is the newly appointed Chairman of the Ikorodu Divisional Football Association’s (IDFA) Referees’ Committee who has the enviable record as the first indigenous FIFA badge Referee in Lagos State and never failed Physical Fitness Test till retirement.
He is a Referee Assessor in the Premiership League after a year as a Match Commissioner in the national league.
He is a retired Director of Education with the Lagos State Government
Ayeni studied Physical Education & Health Studies at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College Of Education, Oto Ijanikin, Lagos State, and also attended University of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, where he also studied Physical Education & Health Studies.
He became a badged FIFA Futsal referee in Nigeria in 2005 and officiated several important matches in the African Championship in Libya 2008, Thailand World Cup in 2012 and many other A-list tournaments before retiring.
He also officiated in the Nigeria Professional Football League for about 17years and officiated in three Confederation Cup Finals.
In this interview with Kunle Adelabu, the Publisher/Reporter – in – Chief, THE IMPACT Newspaper, Ayeni spoke on roles of the newly created IDFA’s Referee Committee, training and development of referees in Ikorodu, efforts to replace experienced referees with up and coming ones and discipline for referees.
He also spoke about the intention of his committee to bring back the old method of training referees in ensuring that young referees attain the peak of their career. Excerpts:
IMPACT: Since your retirement as a FIFA badge referee, what have you been doing within the football circle?
Ayeni (FIFA): Since retiring in 2013, I have been involved in one thing or the other. I started with the national league as a match commissioner and spent a year there. Thereafter, I moved to the premiership where I also spent another one year. After that, I became a referee assessor in the Nigerian PremierLeague.
IMPACT: Let’s look at your role as the Head of Referees’ Unit of the Ikorodu Divisional Football Association (IDFA), what are your specific roles?
Ayeni (FIFA): One is the development of referees. My role as the chairman is to develop referees that will surpass those names that you have been hearing in Ikorodu like the likes of Ayeni, Ridwanulahi, Ogunmuyiwa, Yemisi Akintoye and others, who are in the limelight in the country. In Ikorodu, we have some referees who are officiating in the NNN like the likes of Afinni Isa and Tokunbo among others.
Our target in Ikorodu is to bring in a new set of referees who are young boys and girls around 18 and 19 years of age. Our intention is to groom them and ensure that they surpass all these names that I have mentioned. That is the benchmark for our development now. The likes of Shille, Jokogbola, Warit Adekoya, Warit Shonibare and others have been brought on board so as not to create any vacuum when the senior ones are passing out.
When I was phasing out as a referee, the likes of Ogunmuyiwa (junior), and Rilwan, my son, took up the mantle and they have been performing well. Recently, Yemisi, one of our girls, was awarded a FIFA badge. This is as result of the developmental process that we have carried out in Ikorodu.
The Ikorodu FA Chairman has also been doing yeoman’s job by giving us a series of competitions to engage our referees. This has prevented idleness for our referees in Ikorodu.
IMPACT: In what way has the IDFA been ensuring the achievements of the developmental targets of the Ikorodu Referees’ Society?
Ayeni (FIFA): The IDFA has been responsible and responsive in terms of competitions. There is no time in Ikorodu that we don’t have football competition. There's always football engagements year in, year out in Ikorodu. We always tell our referees that their focus should not be about monetary gains or reward but that their focus must be about their own development. The stage which they are now is the developmental stage of their career and they should be prepared to handle matches no matter what they are being offered. The most important thing is for them to develop their skills and mental attitudes.
Our members in Ikorodu Referee Society are so blessed because there are always matches for them to officiate and those Referees that have retired before me and l are always present at match venues to watch games. We always come around during matches to observe and correct them. I also made it a point of duty to always observe and correct them during matches where necessary too.
The IDFA Chairman, who is also a retired Referee, also observes them and gives a lot of corrections that have been helping our referees’ growth and development.
IMPACT: Now, what can you tell us about the state of officiating or refereeing in Ikorodu?
Ayeni (FIFA): I have to give kudos to the Chairman of the Ikorodu Referees’ Society in person of Mr Hassan David and the training department of the society that comprises Alaga Ridwan Ayeni, Warit Adekoya and others. Also, FIFA Jelili Ogunmuyiwa also compliments their efforts in terms of training the referees. We will not be shy away to say that the Lagos State Referees’ Society and the Nigerian Referees’ Council should look more at the Ikorodu Referees’ Society where we have abundant young talents and promote them as Premier League referees, because of the in-depth training (practical, physical and intellectual).
I am always delighted each time I go for the training of the society and see the way and manner that they have been tutored in the laws of the game. And more so, the society does have platforms for interactive engagements which every member do partake in by asking questions or raising observations. This session is not limited to the active referees as retired ones like us also do take part. We also have a lot of people coming on board to give support. Just recently, I discussed with the former Secretary- General of the Nigeria Referee Association (NRA) who is also one of our patrons, Prince Moroof Oyekunle Oluwa, that he needs to come to our aid in the society by sponsoring a competition which he accepted and asked me to continually remind him about it. We want to ensure that we have ceaseless competitions in the society and we want to be appreciating good performances during the competitions.
I also intend to join in sponsoring too in my own way because I want to continually collaborate with the training department of our referees to continue to improve them.
IMPACT: Let us look at the aspect of discipline of our referees in Ikorodu because this is very key in their development too. What are you doing in this regard sir?
Ayeni (FIFA): it is a pity that the young referees did not witness what we went through when we were coming up as referees. Some of our elders were very hard on us but we didn’t know that they were trying to help us. It was the way that we were brought up that made us attained what we achieved. There are a lot of lost boys on the street these days. Despite the fact that we have to instill discipline, there must also be room for leniency. When you pull the string at one end, you must relax it at the other. Discipline this time around is just to correct. As I am talking to you today, some of these boys officiating are actually scheduled to serve punishments. They failed to come for the keep fit session of the society and they are going to forfeit the match honorarium to the society. That’s one of the ways that we discipline them. This is just to correct them and tell them that it is important for them to honour all the training sessions of the society which is for their own good. We are only trying to make them responsible and reliable in the future. Who knows the one among them that is going to carry the flag of the society at the national and international stage.
IMPACT: What is your assessment of the referees so far in this competition, regarding the handling of matches as well as your words of encouragement and advice for the up and coming referees?
Ayeni (FIFA): So far, so good, I am convinced that we have been making the right decisions in our selections. This is because despite the suggestions that we should use mainly senior and experienced referees in our competitions, I stood my ground and encourage the engagement of the young and up and coming ones too. I always tell them before matches to free themselves while on the field and focus more on their level of concentration. Once they have that, they are going to be in control of the match. I always charge them to showcase the knowledge that they have; exhibit what they they have been taught and what that they are made of. I believe that doing this will make them improve and the sky will be their limit. So far, it has been good and I want to commend them and the council too for how far that they have gone. I promise you that we will continue to bring in new and young referees to officiate matches. Here, a Grade 3 referees will be at the centre and Ayeni Ridwan, Afinni Isa and even FIFA Jelili too will run lines for them. We are building them because that was what was done while we were coming up. The former Chairman, Chief Wahab, of blessed memory, ran line for me. So also were Prince Jimoh Ogunmuyiwa, FIFA, A.S Jimoh and FIFA Falade. They all ran line for me while I was at the centre. We are bringing back old days ways of training referees in order to properly groom our young and up and coming referees to make them perform well.
