All is still not well with refereeing in Ghana after Anas exposé

After the Tiger Eye PI earthquake that shook Ghana football on 6 June in which over seventy match officials were caught in corrupt circumstances, complaints of bad officiating and match manipulations have not stopped.

Tema-based referee Maxwell Hanson was one of the few stainless referees and was selected to take charge of the biggest friendly game between Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko on August 26.

The Phobians lost by 2-0 and immediately after the game Hearts of Oak coach Seth Hoffman attacked Hanson’s quality of officiating.

“Anytime my players went into tackles he (the referee Maxwell Hanson ) gave a foul against us and brandished yellow but when it was Kotoko players he hardly awarded us the infringement. It was bad officiating.” Hoffman complained in the post-match interview.

“They scored the first goal following a foul against Malik but the referee didn’t whistle and they scored from that incident,” Hoffman added.

And indeed Maxwell Hanson was not convincing in some key moments of the game. For instance, Augustine Sefah should have been sent off for a reckless tackle against Joseph Esso but Hanson only issued a caution.

Again Robert Addo didn’t deserve a second caution in his challenge against Kotoko’s Songne Yacouba as replays show the Hearts of Oak defender was rather fouled.

Kotoko played well and deserved their victory but there was a big question mark around Hanson’s neck.

Last Sunday after the Ashantigold 3 Asante Kotoko 2 game in Obuasi Kotoko’s caretaker coach Akakpo Patron directed his frustration towards the center referee Abdul Latif Qadir and blamed him for Kotoko’s defeat.

“We didn’t lose the game, as for the numbers you may say it’s 3-2, but from my point of view we didn’t lose, we were down by two goals and our boys showed a very good fighting spirit and equalized the two goals. Even their own fans (Ashgold) were surprised with the penalty the referee gave them” Akakpo Patron ranted after the game.

“Still things are not well with officiating in our game. These are some of the things by now people should have learned something, people don’t have to go and influence the referees or the fourth referees when the game is on course.”

“From what I saw, I saw someone influencing the referee when the game was 2-2, because they, Ashgold were panicking” Patron complained.

Akapo Patron also sent a strong warning to club officials if they want the betterment of the game after the Anas video.

“If we want our football to be okay, we should leave only the technical staff to do their work, the players also to do their work and people who are behind to do their work very well. Nobody should go and influence match official when the game is going on” he added.

These are alarming early signs considering that the matches in question were just friendly games.

And so one could imagine what will happen if the competitive season resumes.

The Anas exposé was undeniably beneficial as it presented strong evidences to prove the degree of corruption in the Ghanaian game forcing government, FIFA and CAF to act but officiating still appears an area authorities will have to do more before competitive football bounces back in the country.