Vice President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Mark Addo, has assured Ghanaian referees of maximum security ahead of the pending 2019/2020 season.
In the past, certain hostile venues have influenced the ‘knights of the whistle’ to call decisions in favour of mostly home sides with fear that an unbiased assessment of the game, may stir displeasure among homecrowds.
But in a move to ensure a safe haven at their scheduled December 28 match centres from the premiership to the lower tiers, Mr Addo outlined measures the GFA were rolling out for match officials.
“We are in discussions with the National Youth Authority (NYA) as well as other agencies to provide us with stewards at the various match centres to complement the efforts of the security agencies.
“Also, we will put in place a monitoring model that will essentially give us feedback on reports at the various match venues.
We are also working on taping all the games to ensure that we have footage of whatever transpires at match venues,” Mr Addo said.
Heading into the new season, Mr Addo, who delivered these remarks at the opening of a four-day integrity seminar for 311 selected referees at the Pentecost Convention Centre in Gomoa on Tuesday, also charged the referees to exhibit high standards in the aftermath of the Anas Aremeyaw Anas documentary on the scandal that implicated over 90 referees.
Mr Addo added that his outfit’s aim was to develop referees with “quality and not quantity.”
He indicated that even though the GFA was willing to develop the professional capabilities of referees in the country, it was only those that displayed high standards and quality that would eventually make the mark.
“It’s time for a new dawn; strive to be excellent,” he added.
With regardto the old practice where home teams funded the expenses of match officials, the GFA Vice-President indicated that was scraped.
“Going forward, we want independent-minded referees and therefore the practice of home teams financing the accommodation and transport of visiting match officials will now be fully borne by the GFA,” the FA Veep assured.
BY NANA BENTSI ODURO