Attempts to foster a safer and more enjoyable domestic football environment in the country have been largely unsuccessful due to factors including the win-at-all-cost syndrome, poor officiating, and fans’ despicable attitude, all of which have damaged the reputation and image of the league, making it unattractive to sponsors, broadcasters, and potential new fans.

The consensus among stakeholders is that stricter law enforcement, fan education and engagement, as well as encouraging family-friendly environments, will help improve the situation and encourage the return of sponsors and families to stadiums. As the 2025-2026 season of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) enters the second week, CHRISTIAN OKPARA writes that Nigeria needs stiffer penalties backed by law to curb crowd trouble at match venues and make the league a beautiful bride once again. Family vacation packages

On June 25, 2022, the centre referee in the match between J Atete FC, a Nigeria National League (NNL) side, and Ekiti United Football Club, Ms. Patience Nweke, escaped death by the skin of her teeth after being beaten to a coma by thugs and players of the home side.

At the Otu Jeremi Stadium, Delta State, where her assailants descended on her during the Group B1 Match Day 19 fixture, they accused her of allegedly “working against their team.” It took medics over four hours to revive her at a nearby hospital.

When Vincent Temitope stepped onto the Lafia Township Stadium on Sunday, April 13, 2025, he hoped to lead his team, Plateau United, to another victory in their quest for a continental ticket at the end of the 2024/25 season, having proved his status as one of the stars of the Jos-based side.

With his mesmerising dribbles and goals accounting for the little hope Plateau United had of getting a ticket to play on the continent through the Nigerian Premier Football League (NPFL), the club was witnessing a change in its fortunes under Coach Mbwas Mangut after a poor start to the season.

Due to his outstanding performance, irate fans of the host team, Nasarawa United, immediately after the match, descended on him and were inches away from snuffing life out of him. He was stabbed multiple times by the fans, but he survived the assault.

Before the attack, the NPFL had banned fans from watching games at the Lafia Stadium and had only just approved the return of spectators to the stands under strict conditions.

Although the match ended 3-2 in Nasarawa United’s favour, Temitope, who scored a goal and missed a penalty during the game, angered the fans with his dangerous moves, which, according to them, threatened Nasarawa United’s survival in their fight against relegation. The story would have been different had it not been for the intervention of security personnel.

If the two above survived the attacks, Igeniwari, younger brother of former Super Eagles star and coach, Finidi George, was shot dead by unknown gunmen just outside the Lekan Salami Stadium, Ibadan, after an FA Cup game between his club, Rangers Football Club of Enugu, and Stationery Stores of Lagos in 1995.

The player, who was then playing for the national U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, was a victim of crowd violence after the game. He died before he could be rushed to a hospital, and to date, the perpetrators of that dastardly act have not been found.

Football, the world’s most popular sport, has long been plagued by crowd violence and disorderly behaviour by fans, which has had several significant consequences for football leagues and the broader community. In Nigeria, the scourge has gone on for as long as the quest for honours has been in existence.

Hooliganism as a global malaise

From heated local derbies to high-stakes international clashes, fan aggression has sometimes escalated into dangerous riots, injuries, and even fatalities. Sadly, the ugly situation is not limited to Nigeria.

Recently in France, fans of Paris St. Germain went on a victory frenzy, looting shops and maiming some people in apparent celebration of the club’s first UEFA Champions League final victory over Inter Milan of Italy.

When the dust settled, two people lay dead and over 500 more were injured and taken to the hospital. Rooted in passion, rivalry, and sometimes political or social tensions, football hooliganism remains a challenge despite efforts to curb it.

Since the “Hillsborough disaster” in England, an incident in which a crush of football fans ultimately resulted in 97 deaths and hundreds of injuries during a match between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool at Hillsborough Stadium, in Sheffield, England, on April 15, 1989, managers of the world’s most popular game have been looking for ways to make the stadiums safe for fans and players.

Over the years, several tragic incidents have highlighted the dangers of crowd violence in football. But many countries have adopted measures to curb the menace, with some of them employing drastic sanctions to deter people from causing havoc at match venues.

For instance, England has, over the years, introduced all-seater stadiums, improved surveillance, and banned known hooligans to curb the crowd violence that was rampant in the 1980s.

The introduction of stricter policing, enhanced stadium security, and harsher legal penalties for violent fans by England has also helped mitigate the issue.

Football’s world governing body, FIFA and UEFA have promoted campaigns against hooliganism, urging clubs and fans to embrace a more positive sporting culture.

But Uganda went a step higher in 2023 when it passed into law a new rule that seeks to jail hooligans for up to 10 years, depending on the enormity of the crime that they commit during or after games.

Tagged the National Sports Law, the bill was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni, and Section 64 of it states: “A person shall not commit an act of violence or hooliganism at a sports event or sports competition organised by a national sports association or a national sports federation.”

It describes a hooligan as a person with the intent to disrupt an event, one who destroys property, injures another, disturbs peace, or intimidates a match official or participant, among others.

The law has provided for a sentence of up to 10 years or a fine not exceeding shs 9.6 million (N4.1 million) or both. In addition, culprits may be ordered to cover the costs of the losses and be banned from attending any football events for a period not exceeding three years.

This law followed the spate of violent acts that disrupted and even maimed fans at Ugandan football games, and the authorities felt that merely deducting points from teams, as the country’s Football Association did to Villa SC, was not effective in curbing the menace.

Record-16 league champions Villa SC were grossly affected by the vice after losing the trophy through point deduction, even though they collected the most points on the field of play.

Unlike the Ugandans, the Nigerian system shows that the current measures adopted by NPFL have not been effective, as teams go back to their old ways, even when they are punished by points deduction or banished to play their home games far away from their home ground.

This can be gleaned from the Nasarawa United versus Plateau United incident that happened a few weeks after Nasarawa United returned to the Lafia Stadium home ground.

AS a football powerhouse, corruption, endemic violence, poor officiating, and sundry callous acts perpetrated by players, fans and club managements have not only robbed the domestic league of both sheen and resources, but also ensured that the league remains in its infancy despite enormous potential.

Only recently, a corrupt club manager went on air to boast that he can help teams get favourable results if the money is right. According to the official, clubs win games without properly working on the standard of their teams because they know how to settle officials. This mentality has affected the game to such an extent that fans take up arms when they perceive that officiating is biased against their team.

Apart from the bad image that hooliganism creates for the country’s game, a former Dolphins of Port Harcourt Media Officer, China Acheru, said one of the biggest effects of violence on the game is that families no longer risk watching live matches involving their teams. This, he said, has affected sponsors’ attitude to the game because these corporate bodies always want mileage from their investments. Family vacation packages

According to Acheru, the security provided in match venues is never enough because of the framework of the league. “Our rules say 50 policemen must be available at the stadium, and that can never be enough to police the stadium with over 10,000 fans. This is even worse in violence-prone arenas. Also, the mentality of the coaches and club management is, more often than not, the mentality of the players, which transcends to the supporters’ club and others associated with the club. Football should go beyond the three points that are at stake in any given match.”

The Head, Media and Publicity, GTI Investment Group, official finance partner to the NPFL, Andrew Ekejiuba, echoes Acheru’s point, adding that: “No serious brand, or serious sponsor would like to sponsor a league that is replete with crowd violence. No sponsor can benefit from a league that is questionable with the attitude of the fans towards matches.”

Ekejiuba said crowd violence and hooliganism were one of the main issues that his outfit tried to stamp out when it came into the league. “Crowd violence is associated with a lot of things, including poor officiating, which can instantly trigger home fans to behave irrationally. So, we tried to stem it and now to an extent it has been reduced. Among other things, we did this through ensuring that match officials are well remunerated and that their movement to match venues is made seamless to reduce poor officiating. Specifically, GTI took it upon itself to ensure that indemnities of match officials are paid 48 hours before they leave their homes for match venues.

“We also ensure that the transportation fare for match officials is ready 48 hours before they leave for the games. We go further to punish those who refuse to do the right thing. We put all these measures in place because we know that crowd violence and hooliganism drive away sponsors, as well as inhibit the growth and development of the league.”

While United States-based sports marketer, Samuel Ofulue, is blaming the backward state of the country’s football on the inability of managers to firmly tackle hooliganism, bribery and corruption in the system, he expressed regret that Nigerians get away with many things such that people, including investors, do not take the country seriously anymore.

“The Western world has made its sports arenas safe for families to attend because they know the importance of safe stadiums to their sports economy. Apart from games on the pitch, many businesses go on within and outside the stadium, and these places must be kept safe for those who patronise them.

“If you know the volume of Indian hemp that some people smoke in and around stadiums, you will imagine where the problem comes from. These thugs work for the clubs as fans. Nigeria is the only country I know that teams pay fans to come and support them. These paid fans, called supporters, are used by teams for different functions, including disrupting games.”

Ineffective security, poor policing of match venues as enablers

In advanced societies, where sports mean big business, competition organisers spend resources in training security officials and matchday stewards to maintain order in and around stadiums. In these climes, managers of the game plan comprehensive security programmes days before matches to ensure that nothing goes wrong, especially fans’ behaviour at any period of a given game.

A security plan is a strategy designed to prevent, detect and respond to potential threats during football matches. Club sides in these climes meet with designated officials and decide on measures to adopt due to the peculiar behaviours of the fans of the clubs involved.

These trained officers focus only on the crowd during games without watching the games because that is their job. But in Nigeria, the reverse is mostly the case. Often, the Nigerian security officers inside the stadiums are those with sympathy for certain clubs and go to the venues to support their clubs.

A former midfielder with Rangers Football Club of Enugu, Austin Igweokolo, said that most of the problems at match venues are orchestrated by club managers and illiterate fans, who do not understand that football is a game that goes to the best team.

“In a lawless country like ours, where hooliganism and crowd violence at match venues have become a way of intimidating opponent teams, some teams encourage their supporters to harass match officials, including centre referees. And without a conscious employment of well-trained and well-equipped security guards, violence and hooliganism will take centre stage. Remember, this is becoming a lucrative job in our match venues, as most clubs have those hooligans on their payrolls, using them when things are not going well for them.

“For sanity to reign, therefore, the league managers should recruit, train, equip and deploy security operatives to ensure that hooliganism and crowd violence are reduced to the barest minimum. The full weight of the law should be brought upon all defaulters as a way of cautioning others.

“It is also the NPFL’s role to sensitise the general public on the implications of wrong behaviours during and after matches and the effects their wrong behaviour can have on their darling team. These can be done at various match venues with billboards, flyers and intermittent radio and television broadcasts.

“If the fans know that they must protect the referees, match commissioners and the opposing players, they will not resort to violence,” he said. Igweokolo added: “About 80 per cent of crowd violence in match venues is fueled by bad officiating influenced by the win-at-all-cost syndrome. This is where referees should learn to remain faithful, knowing that life is better than all these things. A referee who is not ready to be bribed should understand the network of his career. If a referee’s security and that of the opposing team are not guaranteed, why continue the game? It is the same with match commissioners. This phenomenon will end if referees, match commissioners and their leaders stop selling their conscience for money (bribe) or being tribalistic in their opinion concerning our football.

To a former Enyimba Football Club of Aba defender, Ikechukwu Ogbonna, when teams depend on match officials to win games instead of building strong squads, they send wrong signals to their fans, who believe that no matter what happens, their team will win. “When these teams meet honest referees, who adhere strictly to the rules of the game, they sometimes misbehave. They believe that when they play away from home, they are also cheated; therefore, they must extract their pound of flesh at home,” he said.

Recently, the Nigeria Professional Football League Club Owners Association urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the NPFL to seek legislation that would jail any fan caught assaulting players or referees at any match venue.

According to the association, hooliganism at match venues is a result of the desperation of home teams to win games at all costs, hence the compelling need for the league governing body to “approach courts of competent jurisdiction to try and sentence those guilty of referee abuse at the highest possible threshold and issue stiffer football banning orders no matter whose ox is gored.”

“Preventive methods should be enforced by various state FAs too, because sometimes FAs and other bodies and organisations have failed in the performance of their official functions and have therefore become part of the problems themselves.

“In our attempt to bring justice to the game of football to create equality and effect the much-desired change around many important issues, we should not forget inter alia the safety of referees at our match venues before, during and after games,” the club owners emphasised.

Baring his mind on the issue, a former Adamawa United Chairman, Emmanuel Zira, explained that some fans resort to taking the law into their hands when they feel that their teams have been cheated.

“These fans travel with their teams for away games and see how referees manipulate games in favour of home teams. They also expect to be favoured that way when they play at home, but when that does not happen, they descend on match officials and the away team.”

Insisting that most of the violence in Nigerian football is caused by poor officiating, he stressed: “Referees play a very important role in curbing hooliganism in our stadiums. If referees officiate very well, your supporters will have no cause whatsoever to be violent in the stadium. And this will also see teams recruiting good players because they know that the only way they can win is by playing good football.

“What is happening now is that some teams don’t even give a damn about the recruitment of high-quality players; they don’t even care about the welfare of players, and they don’t go for sound technical teams. All they do is just take whoever they want because they believe that they can bribe the referees and get them to officiate in their favour.

“Unless this is stopped, unless our referees make up their mind to officiate fairly, balance the game without fear or favour, we’ll continue to have hooliganism in our stadiums.”

Zira said the menace could be curbed by adopting the Ugandan example, adding that jailing fans who cause bodily harm to others or damage opposing teams’ or facilities at stadiums will make fans think twice before taking the law into their own hands.

Once you jail one, two and three hooligans, the menace will stop,” he said.

To the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) Head of Safety and Security, Dr. Christian Emeruwa, Nigeria can only effectively tackle hooliganism during NPFL matches or all the leagues through a multi-pronged approach – combining regulatory reform, stakeholder accountability and public engagement.

He said: “There is a need to amend the disciplinary codes; we need to review and update the league’s disciplinary regulations to incorporate clear, enforceable and modern sanctions specific to acts of hooliganism.

“It also must be proportional and transparent sanctions… we must ensure that penalties are commensurate with the severity of offences, including fines, points deductions, match bans and stadium closures where necessary. Additionally, there must be a policy that encourages publicizing the sanctions that culprits are subjected to. I also feel strongly that there should be public denouncement by sanctioned clubs; they should be required to publicly condemn incidents of hooliganism via press releases, social media and stadium announcements, if possible, reinforcing a culture of zero tolerance to hooliganism. You don’t see this in the clubs.”

Emeruwa noted further: “Hooliganism does not just happen in the stadium; it happens before the match is played, and we always see coaches, team managers, chairmen of clubs making inciting statements on the media without any disciplinary action. Such people need to be held accountable because they fuel the acts of hooliganism.”

Like Zira, Emeruwa urged appropriate authorities to seek supporting and enabling legislation against hooliganism, saying that the country needs to advocate for the enhancement and enforcement of legislation.

“We don’t have any law that criminalizes hooliganism at sports venues. We need this law to empower law enforcement agents to arrest and prosecute offenders. There’s a need to engage with sports committees in the National Assembly to get this law enacted.”

Apart from laws on hooliganism, Emeruwa also said that NPFL managers, club owners and all stakeholders should engage and sensitize spectators on the damage that hooliganism is doing to the game.

“While we are thinking about sanctions, we must also launch awareness campaigns highlighting the dangers and consequences of hooliganism. There’s also a need for every club and supporters’ clubs to appoint what we call spectator licensing officers at match venues to engage directly with fans and work closely with security personnel to identify the bad eggs, and also recommend actions to security personnel.

“Additionally, every stadium should have a code of conduct for spectators who come to watch matches. This specifies how the spectators need to behave. We also need to implement proactive crowd management strategies and improve CCTV coverage. If I may ask, how many stadiums have what we call venue operational centres that are functional in Nigeria? Even Abuja Stadium doesn’t have a functional one. So, you need to have this.”

The FIFA security officer, who once headed the NFF’s Integrity Desk, said that the NPFL must also find a way of segregating fans by ticketing systems where necessary, adding that timely intelligence sharing between clubs, league organisers and law enforcement agencies should be encouraged by the league body.

“A fan identification system must be introduced to help track offenders and prevent repeated incidents, just the same way that a digital ticketing system will play a role in ensuring sanity in the system.

“As it is today, anybody who messes up in any Nigerian stadium can still enter another stadium in the country without being prevented. But if you are banned in any country outside Europe or within Europe from entering any stadium, you’re automatically banned. You can’t get in. Why? Because there’s an identification process,” Emeruwa stated (The Guardian)