WORRIED by the disturbing report on the alleged match fixing scandal rocking the Nigerian Premier League (NPL), the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has written to the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) through the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), warning that the confederation was watching the outcome of the investigation with keen interest.It warns that it would come down on the NFF and the NRA should the federation fail to punish any team indicted in the case between Lobi Stars of Makurdi and Sunshine Stars of Akure.Lobi Stars Vice Chairman, Dominic Iorfa had dragged the 2011 league runners up, Sunshine Stars to the NFF disciplinary committee, accusing the Akure-based side of plots to rig their week 30 match in Bauchi. He alleged that the match officials were spotted in one of the official cars of the Akure-based side.A source in the NRA has revealed that the scandal has rubbished all the efforts of the body's executive board to change CAF's negative perception of Nigerian umpires in continental and international matches.Confirming the letter from the continent's football governing body, NRA Chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Maude, said in Abuja over the weekend that although CAF had indicated serious interest in the investigation, the letter was just to warn the referees to desist from all forms of match fixing, saying that the body already had negative perception of Nigerian referees.Maude, who also appeared before the disciplinary committee to answer charges that he aided the Akure side with loyal referees, disclosed that the warning of NFF and NRA by CAF was made necessary by the fact that CAF referees department was undergoing a new phase with therecent emergence of an interim chairman.'You know that the referee department in CAF is undergoing a new phase. We have a new interim chairman who is very much interested in Nigeria. We have been talking with him and he has said that Nigeria should take her rightful place as a giant football-playing nation in the African continent.'I cannot say that CAF is not directly involved in the investigation of the match fixing, but it has told us that it is watching. The confederation is certainly looking at what will come out of it,' he noted.
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