CAF takes disciplinary action against referees

On Sunday 5th of August 2018, the Disciplinary Board CAF held a meeting in order to decide over the cases of the referees named by media as being corrupted on CAF and Federation Matches.

The CAF Disciplinary Board made the decision in which 8 referees and assistant referees were banned from all CAF related activities. The 8 are all from Ghana. David Laryea, an assistant referee got a life ban while the rest got a 10-year ban each.

Another decision also saw 14 others provisionally suspended pending their appearance in front of the next meeting of the Disciplinary Board. They include referees and assistant referees from Congo, Liberia, Ghana, Benin, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Madagascar.

The first ever athlete from Ghana to compete in the skeleton event at the Winter Olympics finished in last place in the event at the Pyeongchang games in February.

Frimpong’s last place status did nothing to dampen his spirits. He is upbeat for better performance at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. He also recently he got nominated for the Africa Exclusive Men of the Year Award 2018 for his contribution to sports development in Ghana.

Afrcanews touched base with him and asked him about his journey as an Olympian, and about the Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation of Ghana which he founded in 2016. Below is a full excerpt of his comments:

_“It’s been an honour to be nominated for the Africa Exclusive Men of the Year Award 2018 in the category of sportsmen of the year. In 2016 i started as Africa’s first black skeleton athlete in the history of the sport. In 2017 I had the privilege to compete at the world championships in Königssee, Germany and then in 2018 when my dream became a reality, after working so hard I represented Ghana going head-first. I have learned a lot, I have accomplished a lot. Going to win Africa’s first medal in the winter olympics is going to be hard.

Gold for Africa, gold for Ghana. It’s so interesting to see that there are so many people from the continent that are interested in winter sports. I think it’s only the beginning. In terms of Ghana we have done about 4 clinics, Bobsleigh and Skeleton clinics we have done one in Europe, and we’re probably going to do another one in Europe pretty soon. The challenge is now finding funding to support these athletes. Remember they’re away from home and away from their jobs to be able to focus on this whole thing. That’s something we are still working on. About our board members, we are trying to reorganize some things here and there in the next two years to see where I’d fit best because right now I am the president of the Federation and still the athlete.

We hope to be able to work with the government because that has been a challenge to the government of Ghana and to be able to get things going it’s not easy. People have been reaching out, which is good but we want to be able to have a good foundation for them as well so we are working hard and we are not giving up and we hope to have a Ghana Bobsleigh team in Beijing 2022 and more than just me. The goal is to have more athletes there, and more african athletes in general.”