The Normalization Committee Special Competition was accompanied by traditional optimism and high expectations.
After all, football is coming back after nine months of confusion, revelations and exposé that led to the suspension of domestic football in the country.
70% of the Anas #12 was on Match Officials who were caught on video receiving bribes to influence matches.
The reaction of FIFA, CAF and RAG was massive after the expose, several referees have been banned for life whilst others are facing five to ten years ban for violating the FIFA rules.
Fast forward before the commencement of the Normalization Committee Special Competition, the Ghana FA organized an integrity test for the officials ahead of the Special Competition.
As written on the FA’s official website.
“The Ghana Football Association is organising a five-day integrity course for 150 referees at the West Africa Football Academy (WAFA) complex in Sogakope from today Tuesday, January 22 to Saturday, January 26.
The course forms part of the GFA Normalisation Committee’s continuing efforts to restore confidence in refereeing and avoid match manipulation at all levels in Ghana.”
About twenty two ( 22) referees came out with FIFA badges after the test and that perfectly made way for the start of the NC Special Competition.
After a topsy turvy encounter between the clubs and the NC, an agreement was finally reached for the commencement of the competitions.
The Special Competition is halfway but issues of officiating still lingers on the mouth of every coach.
No referee has been sanctioned yet but poor officiating is still the bane of our game.
Referee Daniel Laryea’ decision to deny Yahaya Mohammed equalizer against Kotoko in the match day one raised a lot of questions marks on our match officials.
It also opened discussions within the media on the application of new FIFA rules.
Wilson Tandoh wasn’t happy with the decision after the game and called on the Normalization Committee to normalize the officials for the betterment of the game.
“Our officials must normalise themselves too, because, it will be suicidal next time when anybody takes the route to defend somebody who is weak,” Tandoh said at post-match press conference.
“I want to tell the NC Chairman [Dr Kofi Amoah] and the Appointment Committee of the Referees that, they should look sharp because it was a bad thing.”
“Laryea [Referee Daniel Laryea] has disgraced himself very well. The goal he disallowed, the player was in the post so how do you disallow it.”
“That’s a very bad thing. So, I beg the officials that, if they want us to have a good tournament, then they should work on the referees because they are still not normalised.”
That comment came just after match day one.
It didn’t end there, assistants coach of Asante Kotoko Akapo Patron also bemoaned officiating after his side 2-2 stalemate with Eleven Wonders.
“We had a clear penalty in the second half but the referee said otherwise.”
The next to follow was Ashanti Gold coach Svetislav Tanasejiv who couldn’t believe why his side were denied a clear penalty against Kotoko.
“Asante Kotoko always get favours from referees, we had a clean penalty in the second half but the referee overlooked it, I wish to invite the referee to come to our dressing room and see how our players are crying.”
Berekum Chelsea coach was livid too after referee awarded a penalty to Kotoko in match day seven.
“The penalty was not a penalty he clearly misread the collision to be a foul when it wasn’t, he could have given himself ample time to think that decision through. Apart from that the referee had a good game”.
‘‘Ghanaian referees haven’t changed after the expose but we can’t complain even though they are still behaving abysmally”, Johnson Smith told pressmen on his assessment of referees after the first round of the NC Special Competition.
The most shocking of all is the clash between Accra Hearts of Oak and Inter Allies.
The referees decision to show Inter Allies goalie red card and doing contrary with Hearts of Oak’s shot stopper left the public in a state awe.
The clubs and the public’s faith in the officials still remain in the balance.
Poor officiating is still haunting our football and it remains a cancer without any antidote to cure it.
The coaches comments after games tells how we are still struggling to solve this officiating conundrum.
Many would have expected to see improvement and changes in our officiating after the #12 expose, but if we are to use the first round of the Normalization Committee Special Competition to make a judgement then we still have a lot of work to do in order to get there.
By: Abdul Wadudu Osman
