Let's not beat around the bush here - this is up there with the strangest football stories you're ever likely to read about.

But yes, you read the headline correctly - a DEAD referee is in line to take charge of a Nigerian Premier League game this weekend.

To make sense of why this has gone down (in a league that was once ranked as better than the Scottish Premier League , no less) you need to get the background to it. It's no clerical error.

It is in fact the latest move in a crisis engulfing the governing Nigerian Football Federation . Earlier this month, a Nigerian court ruled that football official Chris Giwa should replace the FIFA-recognised Amaju Pinnick as the Federation's president.

As you can imagine, FIFA are not too happy about it.

In an effort to stamp his authority on the NFF, Giwa has named all the officials for this weekend's games. Wale Akinsanya was assigned to Warri Wolves vs Giwa FC - the only slight issue being he died in January.

FIFA had already warned that if incumbent Pinnick isn't allowed to carry on his duty, Nigeria would face global suspension from football.



http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/dead-referee-been-appointed-officiate-7811460

When they are busy fighting NFF how will they know of any other event?