The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), said on Monday that it will soon begin to sensitise clubs and other stakeholders to football rules as reviewed by FIFA.
Linus Mba, FIFA Referees Advisor and Consultant to the NFF on Refereeing, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), that the sensitisation would commence fully in September.
Mba, however, said the reviewed laws were expected to take effect from June 1.
“The laws become effective from June 1 but FIFA provides that countries whose leagues are still in progress can defer implementation till the beginning of the new season.
“So the mid-season seminar we would have organised to sensitise people on these changes will be suspended because if we start teaching the changes now, there will be a lot of confusion.
“We need sufficient time to sensitise clubs, teams, players; we also need time to sensitise referees who did not attend our course, so we need longer period than just these two weeks.
“But teams like Enyimba FC who are participating in the CAF Champions League will immediately begin to apply the new laws from June 1; so, we have started to sensitise the club on the changes’’, Mba said.
He said that arrangements were being made to create time to sensitise Enyimba before their CAF group stage matches on the reviewed laws.
“This is to ensure that they don’t get lost during the continental matches.’’
According to Mba, the sensitisation of Nigerian football stakeholders will focus mainly on foul and misconduct as well as the offside laws.
Mba explained that the reviewed laws were the new interpretation to handball and offside, while the law, like the number of players, was seen to be reference material.
“The sensitisation will be in batches for players, media and others.
“The major area of focus will be on laws 11 and 12 which contain the offside, foul and misconduct laws; these are the major ones for now.’’
NAN recalls that FIFA recently reviewed the rules of football, among which is the award of penalties from incidents that occur outside the 18-yard box.