Former FIFA-badged Nigerian referee Okubule dies at 80

One of Nigeria’s foremost football referees, Festus Okubule, is dead.

According to the first daughter, Sola Taiwo, who confirmed the death of the foremost referee, the late Okubule died Tuesday at the Aruna Ogun Memorial Hospital in Ikorodu.Lagos.

He was 80 years; a milestone age he attained a few weeks ago.

A former president of the Nigeria Referee’s Association, the late Okubule according to football statistician, Kunle Solaja, was the second Nigerian referee to officiate at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, 1986, after the pioneering effort of Sunny Woghiren at the 1974 edition which was also held in Egypt.

Okubule who was popularly called ‘Show Boy’ told The Nation in an interview just after his 79th birthday how he earned the nickname due to his extra details for a neat appearance.

He said: “As a referee, I was very neat and that is one of the reasons I was called Show Boy.

“I attended every match with two sets of shirts. I used a certain shirt for the first half while I changed to the second in the second half.

“Most times, I used to ask the referee team whether they came with two sets of shirts. I was always neatly dressed and that is where I got the nickname Show Boy; it was because of my neatness during matches.”

Amongst many other high-profile matches, the deceased refereed the Senegal 2-0 defeat of Mozambique at the 10 March 1986 Africa Cup of Nations duel at the Cairo International Stadium.

Okubule became a FIFA-badged referee in 1974 and almost a decade later, was the first Nigerian referee at a FIFA tournament when he was picked for the FIFA Youth Championship (now FIFA U-20 World Cup) in Mexico.

Coincidentally, just about a month ago, the sporting fraternity in Nigeria was also hit with the news of the death of a pacesetter in the sports journalism industry, Fabio Lanipekun.

Like Okubule, the renowned sports journalist also died a few days after he celebrated his 80th birthday.