A few days back, Berry Ladies faced off with the Hasaccas Ladies in the latter’s home in the ongoing Women’s League. While the match day promised to be exciting and beautiful in that, the growing sensation surrounding Women Football seem to be gaining some form of attention, it rather became an affront on the trend been engineered to bring the love back.
It is quite unfortunate that, as emphatically stated in the Section 23 (1) of the GFA Women’s League Regulations, matches are expected to last for 90 minutes and though clause (2) leaves the addition of times to the full time period at the discretion of the referee, the reasonable approach to exercising a provision is always the best choice to make. The match lasted for 53 minutes in the first half as the evidence presented to the Disciplinary Committee stated. In the response of the referee to the DC, she admitted the allegations and sought to justify her actions with reasons that still does not encourage fair play in football.
One of the major setbacks in Ghanaian Football in its totality is the inability for the conflict resolution mechanisms put in place by the Regulations to rectify all complaints and bring finality to any form of conflict that may mar the beauty of the game. The GFA’s Disciplinary Committee in this regard must be commended for the swift response and ruling to the petition filed against the Referee and Hasaccas Ladies.
In fact, the Kurt led GFA administration must be commended for the swift response they give to conflict resolutions. Unfortunately, the sanctions meted out to the referee for the admission of guilt may not be entirely satisfying, it does not serve the need for a proper deterrent to any official that intends to execute same traits on the field; in that, in the spirit of FairPlay, the referee’s response to the 70th minute foul which gave Hasaccas Ladies a goal should be cancelled. The Law 7 of FIFA rules and regulations cautions against referees compensating for a timekeeping error.
It means therefore that, as much as there has been an established fact that, the match was played extra 25 minutes, again, a fact admitted by the referee. It begs for answers why it will be prudent for the referee will be sanctioned for four matches while the points are given the favouring team, in this respect Hasaccas. I am confident that, inasmuch as there won’t be any forms of justification for indiscipline by players on the field towards Match Officials, these precedents grants same leave way. Nobody wants to be cheated, it is not a fair approach to anything, and when people feel cheated severally without any stricter punishment to deter others from doing same, people get currency to exhibit their angst in the action.
These unfortunate outcomes and scenes discourages investors, who may wish to invest in the industry. It is difficult to grow in such environments especially when a team is perceived to be favourites and must be favoured to win at all cost. And to this, i pray all stakeholders to rise and protect the game they love so much else it loses its essence.
Pray, tell, such acts will rather extinct the love that had started coming home. It is same acts that demoralises players and patrons alike.
