A call referees must heed to

It’s less than a week since the 2025 AFCON ended in Morocco.

For those that had the privilege to watch it via television, it may have gone into the competition’s annals as one of the best in terms of organisation.

But for the ‘yen bo biom’ (match abandonment) ‘excellently’ staged by the eventual winners, Senegal’s Terranga Lions, AFCON 2025 was beautifully staged and was incident free.

But in the social media age, it is extremely difficult to get every incident wrapped under a cover of darkness.

Videos showed a mix-up at the goal area of Senegal arising from a towel placed near the goal post by goalkeeper Mendy.

But almost a week after, two countries – eventual winners Senegal and Ghana, a non-participant, are still celebrating the gains from the championship.

Streets of Senegal have been filled with fans who wants to catch a glimpse of their heroes.

The victory marked the second time Senegal have been crowned AFCON champions, having won the competition for the first time in 2022.

Characteristic with teams’ success in Africa, they have been handsomely rewarded.

Senegal president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has announced that each member of the AFCON winning squad will be awarded a plot of land on the country’s coastline.

Additionally, each player will receive 75 million CFA francs ($134,000; £100,000).

In Ghana, FIFA Referee and Video Assistant Referee (VAR), Daniel Laryea, has become a cult hero with his encouraging performance, especially in the semifinal game between neighbours Nigeria and Morocco.

Last week, this column amply celebrated him and ordinarily, one would expect the focus to shift; and rightly so, the focus is actually not on him but referees of the Ghana Premier League (GPL) whose action, if not sanctioned, could ruin the gains and image credibility Laryea won for Ghana.

A number of clubs have been complaining recently about the state of officiating in the GPL as others threaten to boycott if the situation does not improve.

Kotoko was among the complainants after a decent goal in their game against Gold Stars was disallowed for a very funny reason.

An incident was also reported from Tema where a referee changed a decision to disallow a goal after watching a video of how the goal was scored on a Smart Phone of a fan.

Those reports, the success story of Daniel Laryea and a call by the Vice President of the Ghana Football Association, Mr Mark Addo on referees to aim higher has occasioned this opinion piece, to perhaps remind referees of their responsibilities in making the game attractive in Ghana and the duty of the FA to crack the whip on erring referees.

The FA Vice President, in presenting FIFA badges to 23 Ghanaian referees including Laryea for the 2026 football season, saying that, “I urge you (referees) to keep your heads high. There is a lot of expectation on you, and you must work hard to maintain the standards required”.

He continued: “Aspire for greatness and aim to become world-class referees. How you are perceived when your name comes up matters. Impartiality, fairness and top-class performance must always guide your work.”

In the face of what is happening, Addo’s call was appropriate and straight to the point.

Referees are vital cogs in the football ecosystem and their doing and undoing could make or unmake the efforts put in by a club. What can be more frustrating than a club scoring a genuine goal to be disallowed wrongly?

Many years ago when Asante Kotoko felt cheated and no one listen to them, they staged ‘ye bo biom’ which should not have a place in football. Senegal has just added an international dimension to it.

This is why the FA must sit up and check the names of referees which are becoming synonymous with undesirable officiating against some particular clubs.

By Andrew Nortey

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