Football coach and pundit has hit out at referees in the Ghana Premier League over their poor officiating of matches.
According to him, the poor performance of referees is destroying football in the country and setting the game back.
Coach Sefa said this while speaking about the controversial penalty awarded by referee Amadu Ibrahim during Asante Kotoko’s FA Cup defeat to Aduana FC on Sunday.
“The referees our destroying our game, how can you take such a penalty against Kotoko? It was never a penalty,” he said in his analysis, as quoted by Ghanaweb.
Meanwhile, the Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has refuted claims that referees are deliberately cheating Kotoko.
Henry Asante Twum said, although the performances of some referees have not be up to task, the GFA has never been involved in any manipulation.
His comments were on the back of allegations by some Kotoko fans, who believe referees in the Ghana Premier League have consistently been unfair to their club.
Some weeks ago, a section of the fans made a trip down to the deity Antoa to curse any referee who would attempt to cheat the Porcupine Warriors.
However, reacting to this, Asante Twum said cursing referees was not the way to go even if the fans want fair officiating.
“I’m not sure cursing referees is the best way to go, we can’t improve officiating by cursing referees. If that is the solution then Ghana would have cursed the centre referee who officiated the World Cup game between Ghana and Portugal,” he told Akoma FM, as quoted by 3 Sports.
“No referee will deliberately decide to cheat Kotoko, I report the referee’s performance to the review committee and the referee’s manager after games that I watched.
“There are situations where we all know the referee’s performance is not at the level we want it to be but for someone to think that the FA manipulates referees to cheat a particular team is unfortunate, and there is nothing like that.”
Kotoko are currently third in the Ghana Premier League but have exited the FA Cup after losing to Aduana FC.
Source: EMMANUEL AYAMGA