Sports

Ref Kenny Padi, others suspended

Class One referee Joseph Kenny Padi has been suspended by the Match Review Panel of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for the rest of the Ghana Premier League (GPL) season.

This was after the panel found him to have erred in awarding a penalty to Asante Kotoko in their Ghana Premier League (GPL) Match week 24 game against Hearts of Oak.

The said game ended 1-0 in favour of the Porcupine Warriors with Franck Mbella Etouga scoring the only goal with the controversial penalty.

Hearts filed an official protest against referee Padi on Monday, April 11 where the club expressed dissatisfaction with the unprofessional conduct of referee Padi.

Hearts requested the Match Review Panel to take immediate action to serve as a deterrent to others.

A to an FA statement, the 42-year old referee told the panel that Hearts defender Abdul-Aziz stepped on the foot of Fabio Gama and also stated that there was a push and pull at a point on Fabio Gama.

But the panel after a careful scrutiny of the match footage concluded that the 14th minute penalty awarded to Asante Kotoko was a ‘50-50’ ball in the 18-yard box.

“The referee failed to defend his decision and later admitted that there was no stepping of the foot as he claimed. Again, the referee said there was a push on Gama which was also not emphatically proven in the video,” the statement stated.

In addition, the report noted that the match video showed quite a number of inconsistencies in his decisions during the match especially after the penalty incident, adding that “the referee lost concentration.”

“The panel concluded that the referee erred in awarding the penalty which changed the outcome of the match,” the statement added.

In a related development, referee Isaac Osei who handled the match day 24 GPL game between Berekum Chelsea and Legon Cities also handed similar sanction for not awarding a penalty to Legon Cities in the 42nd minute of the game after Berekum Chelsea goalkeeper was clearly seen pulling down his opponent in the penalty area.

Referee Misbaw Mohammed and Assistant referee Kenneth Tweneboah-Koduah who were in charge of the Medeama SC and King Faisal game also join their colleagues on suspension following a penalty awarded against King Faisal for a foul which occurred outside the penalty area.

BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY

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