The Ghana Football Association (GFA) says it is working hard to limit the margin of errors that usually happens on the part of referees during games.
Referees in the country have come under a barrage of attacks from fans who often accuse them of throwing the laws of the game away and using their own laws in determining games.
According to the FA, this will soon be a thing of the past as the GFA says it is very much committed in investing heavily in match officials to ensure that, that component of the sport is heavily improved.
Speaking on the state of refereeing at the just-ended GFA Ordinary Congress at Prampram, FA president Kurt Okraku, stated that since taking office last October, his outfit had put out policies, plans and strategies to restore the good image of the profession and will continue to do so with the aim of getting them to the highest level.
He disclosed that the FA has acquired new communication gadgets for officials.
“What this means is that when the new season starts, you would see match officials using the communication gadgets and that will help limit the margin of errors that usually happens during games.
“We also intend to invest in software that would help us in analysing the performance of match officials after games. This is in process and beginning next season we would have a software that would help us in analysing whether a referee did well or otherwise in a game.”
He said this would help in the FA’s grading and classification committee in their work.
Mr.Okraku believes his administration is doing a lot to give the refereeing trade a new and well deserved image that would help enforce the trust of football fans.
“We introduced a new refereeing structure for our football Association, appointed a referees manager, a competent referees committee that supervises all the refereeing issues in this country, an integrity officer, re-introduced the match review panel and cleared part of the existing debts owed referees, while improving the general allowance paid to match officials after games.
He added that the FA invested in the training of 311 referees in Kasoa before the commencement of last season and for him, some of these key strategies were all geared towards improving refereeing in the country.
“By and large helped, it helped to improve attendance at the just-cancelled league season. This was because people started having confidence in match officials and the fact that games were not being predetermined.”
On the impending season, the FA boss said, the FA has secured a partnership with the State Transport Company (STC) that will guarantee that match officials pay only 50 per cent of their travelling cost for games.
BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY
