Football administrators guilty of poor officiating – Yakubu

President of New Edubiase football club, Abdul Salam Yakubu, has slammed his colleague football administrators for the rot in football officiating in Ghana even before the Anas exposé which captured massive rot in the entire football system in the country.

His comments come on the back of the decision by the Referees Association of Ghana to ban some of their members for life.

According to Mr Yakubu, referees are not the only culprits, as they are enticed by club officials and even politicians to influence results of games.

“These acts [bribery] by some of my colleagues including myself, have been taking place for as long as I can remember. I’ve been around the last 15 years, so, I know what I’m talking about. Sometimes even monies that are originally meant for players’ bonuses are rather given to match officials after games and this is very sad. Why can’t we use those monies to motivate the players? Club officials want to win games at all cost, so, if you don’t pay, your colleague club chairmen would pay.

“I’ve seen situations during the middle leagues where even politicians get into the fray because they want clubs from their communities to qualify for the premier division. This is completely unacceptable and I’m sure that if club officials stop colluding with match officials to influence the outcome of games, officiating would only get better when the league resumes,” he told Class Sports.

In his view, to help deal with the rot in officiating football matches in the country, referees must be paid well and consistently.

“Every match, they have to pay them first before they move to the match centre so that when they get there, they would not be influenced by officials who want to win the games at all cost,” he said.