Bechem United boss: Consider cheaper VAR for local league
The President of Bechem United Football Club, Kingsley Owusu Achau, has advocated for the introduction of cheaper Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology to help improve the officiating in the local league.
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He argued that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) could start the process of liaising with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to help produce relatively cheaper cameras that could be used at match centres to aid referees in their decision-making as it was done in Europe and elsewhere.
Expressing his impression of the league to Graphic Sports in an interview last week, he said even though officiating had improved as against last season there was still more room for improvement and the introduction of some modest technology could enhance the efficient delivery of refereeing.
''I am even talking to someone at Tech (KNUST) that this VAR shouldn’t be difficult for our engineers to produce because once you have the video taking the coverage you only need a screen to connect it to the video. So I don't think it should be difficult at all.
''In our own small way, we can start with only one analyst so that as soon as the referee is in doubt, he will come and watch the replay and he will be able to make a good decision.
''I believe in innovation, the Europeans are doing it and I know it’s expensive, but we can start in our own small way,” he said.
He also advocated for prompt payment of referees as a way of stamping out bad officiating in the league.
He observed that even though there had been a significant improvement over last season's officiating, there was still room for improvement if the men in the middle of the game were well-motivated.
The Bechem United boss also proposed to the Kurt Okraku-led FA to consider reviewing each match to retribute any referee who failed to meet the standard, as it would send a positive signal to be checking those who could be corrupted into bad officiating.
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''Every match has to be reviewed, whether it’s a live match or not, all matches must be reviewed and that is the only way you'll put the referees on their toes to get a fair officiating,'' he observed.
He was also of the view that the FA did not need a lot of referees to handle league matches and proposed that a few quality ones were kept and be paid good enough and that would motivate them to do a better job.
''If you pay them promptly, you can even cut down the number of referees so that almost every week he is on the field. If every week a referee is receiving something, you don’t need 20 or 30 referees,'' he said.
