Fan violence casts shadow over Nigerian football league

LAGOS: Minutes after the final whistle, Vincent Temitope, a forward with Nigerian football club Plateau United, was bleeding after suffering a horrific cut to his neck.

Temitope was attacked after he had scored in the 3-2 loss away to Nasarawa United last month in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL). His club blamed the attack in central Nigeria on supporters of the home team, with director Yaksat Maklek saying some fans attacked him “inflicting a cut on his neck region, causing sustained bleeding”.

Such instances of violence are frequent in a league in which the home teams often deploy means to win at all costs. A week before Temitope was attacked, players of Lagos-based Ikorodu City were rescued from a stadium in the southwestern Nigerian city of Ibadan after earning a 1-1 draw against the home team, Shooting Stars.

Match officials reportedly had to disguise themselves as policemen to evade violent fans as they tried to leave the stadium. Only a month before, Shooting Stars’ goalkeeping coach John Dosu was punched by an official of a visiting team.

“Desperation for victory, desperation for points, particularly for teams that want to finish amongst the top three, or teams that want to avoid a drop, is usually at the foundation of crowd violence,” Toyin Ibitoye, a former spokesman for Nigeria´s national football squad, the Super Eagles, told AFP.

Fan violence at stadiums also festers because some clubs tacitly support the perpetrators, Ibitoye said. The result is a toxic match-day atmosphere, where fans often feel entitled to attack players and officials if results don’t go their way.

Players and match officials are not the only ones at risk. The police had to fire tear gas to disperse hundreds of angry fans who stormed the pitch and went on the rampage after Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.

But analyst Emeka Nwani suggests that the “violence and hooliganism” are not as rampant as portrayed. Patrice Motsepe, the president of the Confederation of African Football, told journalists in Ghana last month of his “very deep and steadfast” commitment to eliminating violence in African football stadiums.

“To have a single fan injured at the stadium is something that we do not want to experience under any circumstance,” Motsepe said in response to a question about a recent wave of incidents across the continent.

‘Unscrupulous referees’

The integrity of the Nigerian league is also threatened by dubious officiating, which officials are struggling to crack down on. As the current season nears its climax on May 18, league organisers are also scrambling to tackle the age-old problem of questionable officiating.

Some fans accuse referees of bias or being compromised, especially in high-stakes fixtures. In a strongly-worded memo two weeks ago, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) told referees across all tiers to be fair or face the consequences.

It warned that referees found guilty of malpractice could face a 10-year ban and even be handed over to the police for “further investigation and prosecution.” For many club officials, the warning was long overdue.

“That’s how you curb the ‘mago mago’ we always see at this point in the league,” an official with one of the local clubs told AFP, using local slang for foul play or manipulation. ‘Cosmetic sanctions’

Despite fines and stadium bans occasionally handed down by the NPFL’s board, the sanctions are often seen as merely cosmetic. Clubs are rarely held accountable beyond token punishments, and banned fans often return to stadiums undeterred.