How did our referees fare?

The 2014/2015 Premier League season has ended, leaving in its trail the usual wranglings, accusations and arguments. And luckily, perhaps, for the first time in several years, there is no dispute about the three teams to be relegated.

This is not to say that all the relegation-bound teams have accepted their fate without any qualms. There are accusations of some teams ganging up against one or two of the relegated ones. Perhaps, as an association, the GFA has to take note.

Granted that there is freedom of association in the country, including in football, that freedom should be exercised for a good cause, purpose and reason. It is sad to see the back of B.A. United, Great Olympics and Heart of Lions. If for no reason at all, for the number of followers they command and the possible reduction in the economic activities in their environs when they play on their home grounds.

Additionally, the three of them can be described as traditional teams. Definitely, the fortunes of those engaged in the hospitality and transportation sectors in their areas would decline. Indeed, those involved in these industries in and around the home grounds of our football clubs should endeavour to help sustain them to continue to be in existence.

Perhaps, it will be useful to examine the contributions of our referees to the just-ended league matches. It is clear that none of the relegated teams have openly attributed their demotion to the kind of officiating they had in their matches.

However, it should be useful if our referee managers and, indeed, the referees themselves would take a hard look at the performances of those who handled the 240 matches during the season. The matches were successfully handled but we should ask ourselves how professional were they?

The problem we have in referee management has always been our inability to separate the good referees from the bad ones. During the season, a few referees appeared before the GFA’s Match Review Panel and were duly sanctioned. But what is becoming clear is that the sanctions are not biting and severe enough. It should, therefore, be useful if in subsequent seasons a fresh look would be taken to ensure that the sanctions achieved the purposes for which they were instituted.

There are a lot of referees who for the mere reason of they being sanctioned by the GFA feel ashamed and have, therefore, improved upon their performances, to avoid being dragged to face the Review Panel. But there are a very few referees who still persist in wrong-doing.

For such referees, the only medicine or punishment for them should be to remove their names from the referees list. It is only through such disciplinary measures of removing the names of such referees that we can hope to establish the needed good name and image for our referees.

Majority of our league referees are good and are working hard to help our football. It is, therefore, not helpful to put all of them together and label them as ‘bad referees’. There is too much mass condemnation of all referees.

Another unfortunate developing problem in refereeing discipline is the fact that a lot of clubs that suffer injustice and bad officiating have advised themselves not to report such referees to the disciplinary bodies instituted by the GFA.

Some club chiefs claim that when they drag referees to GFA committees, they gang up to inflict more harm on their teams. Some of them even claim that referees who ‘do them in’ turn round to plead with them not to report them. This is unfortunate and not good for the growth of the game. Some club executives have, therefore, come up with the suggestion that the GFA Match Review Panel should, starting from next season, find time and space to review all the league matches. The club owners appear to have succumbed to what they see to be an indirect blackmail and are unable to come up openly with their complaints.

Fact is, no stone should be left unturned to ensure that quality match officiating forms part and parcel of our football. But who should do this. The perception has been that those in charge of referee training and appointment appear to handle them with soft gloves and even try to defend and cover them when they misbehave.

The final placings on the just-ended league table shows that very tiny point differences separated most of the teams. Indeed, only 12 points separated Ashgold, the winners, from Accra Great Olympics and Heart of Lions who occupy the bottom part of the table.

Can we say that no bad or wrong decisions on our part as referees played any part in the point build-up of any of the teams? If the answer is yes, then it can be concluded that some of us as individual match officials, cannot escape blame for the relegation of some clubs. Rlegation is not good or welcome news.

Unfortunately, the rules of football are such that the decision of referees as it pertains to the final score of matches cannot be changed even when it is clear after a match that some decision or decisions might have contributed to the loss, draw or win of a club.

It is, therefore, important that as we handle our matches we should be aware of the consequences of our decisions. Referees, being human beings, may err in some decisions, but when it is not a case of a mistake but something else, and then we should be careful.

My advice is that we should officiate to please God and not men. Yes, we should not do so under the influence of any club executive or spectators. As we get ready for another season, we should all search our hearts and improve upon our performances, at least, for the good of the game.

But for the two or three referees whose performances made our sports commentators to brand all our referees as bad and non-performing, I think majority of the referees did very well during the just-ended league.

PS: My suggestion for the 2015/2016 league is that whoever is in charge of coaching our coaches should teach them to teach our teams and players how to play fixed or compromised matches. I hope my good friend Coach Oti Akenten is listening.