Discipline and respect in football

Football is a game of passion but this passion in many instances crosses the line of respect and discipline. To this end, governing bodies, including the Ghana Football Association GFA, which have the responsibility for the long-term health and development of the game have designed and instituted rules and regulations to ensure respect and discipline for the game.

The behaviour of players towards referees and that of spectators towards referees and players must be controlled. In most instances, the aggressive “must-win-at-all cost” have pushed many stakeholders into a climate of disrespect, indiscipline and even violence, violence in terms of verbal and physical abuse and also insults.

The reported bad news from the Gabon AFCON involving our current number one goalkeeper have come rather as a bad conduct that is unnecessary and unwelcome. The player has apologised and he has been fined US$2,500.00 but the incident has provided a good ground to critically examine the issue of respect in football.

There have been many occasions, when referees especially have been subjected to verbal abuses and insults that cannot be repeated by any decent- minded person. Referees are serially maligned and insulted by people who disagree with their performances. 

And almost in all cases, they get away with this unwelcome misconduct and behaviour. One only has to listen to our local radio stations after football matches, especially when a particular team loses.

The (GFA), as part of its administrative structures, has a Disciplinary Code that describes infringements of the rules in GFA regulations, determines the sanctions incurred, regulates the organisation and function of the bodies responsible for taking decisions and the procedures to be followed before the following bodies;

1. The Disciplinary Committee
2. Ethics Committee and
3. Appeals Committee

But, despite these, the misconducts still persist.

It is sad to note that in spite of these noble ideals, there have been constant and frequent occasions when some club officials and their agents including football serial callers engaged in open insults and accusations of match officials, especially referees.

Indeed, it appears that certain aspects of our regulations governing and controlling the game of football do not apply to some stakeholders in Ghana football, to the extent that even those at the top level of our football management, including the President, are not spared but these acts and behaviours are absent from foreign football where the game originated from. This is because the laws and regulations are more effectively applied.

Nine years ago, I had the privilege of an attachment course with the Administration Division of the British FA.  That was the time that there was an elaborate programme known as RESPECT launched by the FA to try and help improve behaviour throughout English football.

One of the objectives of this campaign was to ensure that both children and adults would continue to want to play football, referee it, coach it and above all enjoy it. The English FA said it was getting clear messages of bad behaviour and disrespect towards referees and the general behaviour of spectators and coaches was in a way keeping away some well-meaning people from associating themselves with the game of football.

Indeed, in a survey conducted before the launch of the programme, 80 per cent of respondents said the British FA’s number one priority should be tackling abuse towards referees. The report of the survey also revealed that 70 per cent of referees were “walking away from the game” fed up with the abuse and intimidation they suffer every week. The report regarded this as unacceptable since referees perform a difficult job to the best of their abilities and therefore deserve respect whatever their level.

Football is seen as a passionate game, but we have to address that passion when it crosses the acceptable norms and lines. Taking no action is not option. We must insist that there should be respect and discipline towards fellow players, referees and spectators.

Referees and some other match officials accept and tolerate some amount of criticism from players and club officials. But there should be a limit to it.

Currently, there are a lot of praises being heaped on the Ayew brothers, especially after the two of them provided the two needed goals for Ghana to eliminate the Congolese national team to send us to the semi-finals of the just-ended AFCON. The praises even extended to their father, the maestro, Abedi Pele Ayew.  But most of us recall the amount of insults that had been visited on these two players. Some critics even pointed out that their inclusion in the national teams was only because of the prominence of their father.

We need to be level headed even when we disagree with others.

Perhaps our national goalkeeper, Razak Braimah, should learn from these examples, bad as they are.  The very people who will sing Hallelujah are the same people who will sing ‘crucify him’. We have the liberty and leeway to criticise what we regard as a poor and unacceptable performance. If our national goalkeeper had shown this character in some other jurisdiction, he might have been made to face some other form of discipline, including the fine.

We should not only invite referees and our local players to face disciplinary hearings and possible sanctions. Our foreign players should not be made to be above the laws and regulations that govern the game. We admire and praise them. They must reciprocate this.

This is not a personal crusade. No, far from that. We all have a shared obligation and responsibility to do something positive about this issue and it will take a joint commitment to make a real impact. We must educate and sensitise the league clubs and other key stakeholders.

Our greatest form of entertainment is football. We should do nothing to bring any pain and controversy into it.  This should be a national crusade. We should show respect to ourselves even when we find ourselves on the other side.

Now that we were not able to win the AFCON trophy, we should not embank on any forms of insults on our players and their managers. Football is a game of win or lose. We played well but others played better. There are thousands of AFCONS in the future. We will win one day.