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Recurring refereeing blunders, A major point of concern for the league

In a wildly furious game that saw Accra Hearts of Oak prevail 2-0 at home against Elmina Sharks, a disturbing incident transpired which became a major talking point even after the game.

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Yet again, another Ghana Premier League game blighted by indecision and ghastly wrong calls from the center referee. Just a few weeks back, news erupted that referees in one of the Division One games -Mighty Royals v Bofoakwa Tano - were ruthlessly pummelled by the home fans who were greatly appalled by the refereeing they had just witnessed before their naked eyes.

Grisly images taken of these severely battered referees circulated around on social media: thick, darkened blood gushing out from the nostrils of one of the match officials. It should be noted that football hooliganism shouldn’t be condoned in any way no matter the gravity of ones’ transgressions. And yet, broadly speaking, it is still possible to glimpse why fans will feel immensely undone by poor refereeing and resort to barbarous acts which only ravages football in the country and brings about fear and panic for match officials. The price you pay for refereeing blunders could be sometimes fatal.

By the same token, referee Gabriel O. Arhin and his assistant Peter Dawsa who refereed the fierce clash between the Ashantigold SC and Hearts of Oak at the Len Clay stadium about four weeks ago, got themselves suspended for the remainder of the season and for some few games into the next.

Their sin as expounded by the GFA Match Review Panel: failing to have a Hearts of Oak penalty retaken after AshantiGold’s goalkeeper, Kofi Mensah, left his baseline before the ball was kicked, and then wrongly awarding a penalty to the home side in the closing phase of the game when clearly the ball had come off the body of Hearts of Oak’s Fatawu Mohammed before striking his arm which was deemed to be in a natural position.

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Moreover, just last Wednesday a glaring penalty for Bechem United in added time was ignored when they played Hearts of Oak at the Bechem park. In a series of anxious, desperate scrambles inside the Hearts penalty area, the ball was hoofed into the plain sky. And then Richard Attah, for fear and fright, raced hurriedly off his line to clear the anticipated danger only to lunge recklessly at a Bechem United player. Yet, despite the referee being present at the murder scene which had just ensued, he failed to mete out the appropriate punishment. No penalty, no card whatsoever.

Perhaps, the idea of awarding a penalty deep into injury time in a game where tensions were frightfully high was a prospect the center referee dreaded: to incur the wrath of the offending team, to have to deal with their deadly, murderous grimace and boisterous confrontations. And so to play it all safe is to ignore, to turn a blind eye to the incident and act as if nothing really, truly happened.

Yet, we have been here before. May 9, 2001, remember? How poor refereeing in a hotly-contested match between Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko gave rise to the most baneful and destructive fatality in the history of Ghana football. That unspeakable happening saw about 127 people perish, and the entire shattered population wept and mourned and great sorrow and deep grief hovered over and slowly enveloped the nation. The price you pay for refereeing blunders could be sometimes fatal.

On Sunday a penalty was wrongly awarded to Hearts of Oak when they played Elmina Sharks at the Accra Sports stadium. The penalty was saved, but Martey Bawa Lord had come off his baseline before the ball was kicked. And despite attempts by the assistant referee to draw the center referee’s attention to order a retake, it all fell on deaf ears.

Perhaps, the center referee, Maxwell Owusu, felt ordering a retake would be too harsh on Elmina Sharks. Perhaps, he also wanted to find placating solace in not ordering a retake so as to cancel out the penalty he had wrongly given in the first place. Maxwell Owusu, however, failed to realize that since historical human existence, for thousands of years, two wrongs have never made a right. He later posted an apology on his Facebook for such damning errors committed, but the damage had already been done. His errors may go unpunished. Still, it’s worth remembering that the price you pay for refereeing blunders could sometimes be fatal.

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Bright Antwi.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the private views of the contributors and do not reflect the views of the organization Pulse.

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