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By Umar Egbunu Muhammed, Lafia
Some football fans who turned up for a pre-season match between Nasarawa United and Police Machine football clubs on Friday have expressed worry that the referee was baias in officiating the match which led to the victory of Nasarawa United, beating their oppenent 4:1.
A source, who pleaded anonymity informed our correspondent that the match would have been in favour of the Police Machine team, but the referee favoured Nasarawa United because he is under their payroll as staff.
“His words: “I came here today to support the Police Machine team because they always play the type of game I like. Their game is very entertaining and they always aim to win. But with what I saw today, it is either the referee has been bought over or because he is under the payroll of Nasarawa United that was why he blew in their favour.”
“During the first half, the police team were leading with 1:0 and they maintained the win till the end of the game. But as soon as they came in for the second half, the referee started blowing in the favour of Nasarawa United so that they will win the match and that was exactly what happened,” he added.
In an 8nterview shortly after full time, the
coach of the Police Machine team, Inspector Isah Muhammed, thanked the players of both teams for making frantic efforts during the game to emerge victorious, saying that there must always be a winner and looser in the game of football.
“I want to commend the players of both teams for their efforts today. They really did their best but we all know that a winner must emerge in the game of football, so Nasarawa United won the match. I will not complain about the referee because he a human being like everyone of us and he was the only one officiating the match. I will only urge all of us to do better next time”, he stated.
One of the assistant coaches of Nasarawa United, Steven Morgan, disregarded the issue of partiality on the part of the referee, saying that he has been in practice for many years and does not have any record of blowing in favour of any team.
“I want to disregard this issue of the referee blowing in favour of Nasarawa United. It has nothing to do with his affiliation to the team as he has been in practice for many years now and he has been doing well in officiating matches”, he added.
