Featured May 27, 2021

Perhaps, such situations were not meant to ignite the spirit of surprise in us. Such occurrences were not expected to provide us with jaw-dropping moments.

For in the spirit of optimism, our belief was that the earthquake that caused mighty trees in the football industry to fall had done enough to clear out the knights of the whistle who were tarnishing the image of the beautiful game. 

However, a careful study of events since the initiation of the revivification plans has made the saints, who believed in the Anas expose crusade and the redemption plan that followed, look stupid as these knights of the whistle continue to display their “resistance to change”…

 

Tempers may flare, unpleasant words may be spewed and trumpeted, and projectiles may be thrown out onto the pitch, but football fans are human enough to forgive a one-off situation or a blip in refereeing performance.

But what they cannot forgive is the nature of errors committed and the consistency in form and shape of refereeing decisions in the country, which almost always appears as a tactic worked upon and drilled at the training grounds.

And unfortunately for Ghanaian football fans, there have been several unforgivable instances to grieve upon.

Roll back the clock to the most disastrous and literally the bloodiest football match in the history of the country and the continent as a whole.

Football fans returned home with an unusual feeling of depression, fear, terror and anger, not as a result of their team losing out points in the biggest game in the Ghanaian football calendar but because poor refereeing decisions summoned the angel of death into the Accra Sports Stadium.

Multiple reports clearly indicate how the actions of the referee on the day led to the catastrophic incidents which took place and the unfortunate passing away of 126 or 127 (according to some reports) passionate and football loving souls in the country.

Apparently, the years that followed showed that no lessons had been learnt, with the same theme and discourse discussed in literally every corner possible.

But if the May 9 incident that took away lives couldn’t do the magic, the Anas expose was supposed to, right?

The expose, although cannot be compared to the May 9 incident, was the most embarrassing period in the history of Ghanaian football and while much focus was on the President and his cronies for their corrupt activities, the referees who have direct impact on the game were as much on the spotlight as anyone.

Revealing the identities of officiators who accepted goats and cash as bribes was meant to scare and serve as a deterrent to the next generation.

Serving out bans to several referees who were caught on tape  was meant to kick start a new generation of refereeing.

It was based on this hope that the Bring back the love hashtag was popularized to redeem the image of Ghanaian football and lead it into the new era.

Not as perfect as expected but supporters have responded very well to the call and are playing their role by attending games even in times of the pandemic.

There has also been a genuine spike in the social media publicity  and the number of fans streaming the games online, but as always, there is an ever-present element negatively impacting the game.

Reports of corruption among referees and poor refereeing has been rife since the expose.

Most significantly, three referees were banned as a result of taking GHc 8,000 to influence the outcome of the NC Special Cup game involving Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Obuasi Ashgold at the Len Clay Stadium in Obuasi.

The accounts have not stopped since then.

Over a month ago, referees were heavily assaulted as a result of what the fans deemed as poor decision making in a division One league game between Mighty Royals and  Bofoakwa Tano, while there have been other incidents in the Ghana Premier League in recent weeks.

The chief officiators of Accra Hearts of Oak’s recent games have been under much scrutiny.

In the game against Bechem United, the referee failed to award a penalty against Hearts of Oak after Richard Attah (Hearts of Oak’s goalie), clearly lunged recklessly at a Bechem United attacker.

Again, in the club’s game against Elmina Sharks, Maxwell Owusu was in the headlines for awarding Hearts a dubious penalty.

Strangely, the referee failed to recognize the signal of his assistant as Martey Bawa Lord came off his baseline before the eventual spot kick was executed.

And it was a mistake that the referee himself admitted after the game saying:

“This was absolutely not a good decision. I’m not proud of it.  A lot of people have been hurt. I am hurt too,” the referee wrote on his Facebook page.

“Lessons learnt in the hardest possible way.

“As genuinely as this mistake might be, steps must be taken to avoid this in the future. This should never happen again. NEVER AGAIN SHOULD THIS HAPPEN!!!.”

Kumasi Asante Kotoko were also beneficiaries of poor refereeing decisions as the center man ignored the events that led to dethroned the league leaders securing a late minute equalizer against Liberty Professionals in week 25 of the Ghana Premier League.

As unfortunate as it sounds, past events have led us to believe that the knights of the whistle are not motivated by neither the death of football fans nor the shaming of their colleagues to execute with least errors.

But what if there is an untold and realistic perspective to the whole narrative?

What if there is a narrative that could generate a new discourse as to how to get the best out of our refereeing situations in Ghana.

The focus is certainly not to condone some refereeing decisions in the country but to offer some plausible reasons why this keeps happening and how we could go about solving them.

Hear me out…

Why does this keep happening?

There are probably a plethora of reasons available to justify or explain the seemingly lack of progress made with regards to our referees since the Anas expose.

As a start, there is enough evidence to suggest that, the Football industry in Ghana is yet to fully recover from the shock waves that hit us so hard following the release of the documentary.

As earlier indicated, there were referees who were banned for temporary and permanent periods (about 61 of them) as a result of their exposure through the expose.

These referees included the experienced who had risen through the Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 and FIFA ranks and could at least be counted on in terms of experience to officiate the big games in the country.

But with their absence, a huge void undoubtedly had to be filled by colleagues who were now gathering the needed experience to officiate games on the big stage.

Thrown onto the scene therefore, these inexperienced referees were bound to make mistakes not out of malice, favoritism or corrupt attitude but as a result of genuine “inability”.

This is a belief shared by the Ashanti Regional Referees chairman and retired referee G.K Manu, who shared his thought with me on the discourse.

“At a point, there were people who thought we could not have enough referees to officiate our games, because most of our experienced referees were taken out of the scene as a result of the Anas Expose.

“But we kept telling them we have more referees available although they do not have the needed experience.

“Since we cannot leave the games unattended we had to push some of the referees into games where there were naturally not ready to officiate.

“So most referees like myself, anticipated the prospect of encountering some challenges with the refereeing decisions as a result of inexperience.”

The expose, undoubtedly, has done a great job of weeding out the bad weeds from our garden.

But the obvious repercussion is that there are several referees who have had less time to officiate lower ranked games, make mistakes, and correct them before rising unto the big scene.

Thus there is not so much need to put them in the “corruption bracket”.

Accompanying the aforementioned reason is that of remuneration and safety.

In as much as the referees are the most powerful personnel on the football pitch, they are as human as any.

Their execution of duties relies heavily, if not entirely, on the financial motivation they get as well as the safe environment they get to execute within.

And it is unfortunate to indicate that these conditions have certainly not been improved since the expose.

It is an open secret that referees are not paid on time, leaving them vulnerable to club administrators who are ready to offer up to quadruple of what the referees get for a game.

There is also the added risk of insecurity at various grounds.

In the exclusive with Ref G.K. Manu, he indicated how referees’ security are not at the highest level with less security personnel accompanying them onto the pitch.

Security personnel are also fanatics of the home clubs, thus instead of preventing the fans from abusing the referees, they will just turn a blind eye.

The result then is that the referees have to submit to the chants of “if you don’t let us win, we will beat you”.

What’s the way forward?

It is unfortunate that we cannot save the situation in the shortest possible time as it will require a lot of effort and time to realize the change that we all desire.

In fact, patience is the word that G.K. Manu continuously uses in relation to the inexperienced situation.

According to him there is a plan in place to ensure that these referees grow quickly to fill the void created by the dismissed  referees.

“We are assessing their performances on a regular basis just to help them develop at a quicker pace.

“The truth is that we cannot go to the supermarket to buy the experience for these referees, but we hope that their exposure to these games, will help them learn.

“We are also advising them to put their ego aside and accept the mistakes they make in games.”

However, it cannot be the only remedy available for the football industry.

Although not a thought agreed upon by our resource personnel, the prospect of inviting foreign referees on the continent or outside it to compliment the efforts of the ones we have could do as more harm than good.

Bringing in foreign referees to officiate will not only enhance the reputation of Ghanaian football aside the confines of the country but it could renew the people’s trust, knowing that an impartial decision maker will be in charge of their games.

But of course, this also raises another challenge of remuneration.

If the local referees are not being paid and on time, why do we import others for huge sums of money?

This responsibility of striking a perfect balance between remunerating the referees and bringing in foreign ones, should be at the door step of the governing body of the league and the Association in general.

The two institutions should also put in an incredible amount of effort into providing the maximum security for referees which will include protecting them hours before the game, during the game, and after the game.

Our referees can be saved…

It is easier to give in and admit that our referees are beyond saving but a rethink of that conclusion will do as so much good.

The referees, of course, are supposed to step up their game but so should the various stakeholders involved.

The various governing bodies should take responsibility for the part while the media should play a role in educating the fans on changes of rule including the new handball situation.

Only then can we fully realize and execute the revivification plan.