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| Referee Issaka Afful in Medeama-Kotoko match. |
Not
that I’m a perfectionist. I’ve never wanted to be. I don’t want everything to
be perfect with me. That’s not possible but last Thursday, I was hurt; I was
emotionally bruised sitting in front of the Ghana Football Association (GFA)’s Ethics
Committee.
I
can’t explain my feeling but thinking through it, I suspect my own standards
pronounced a guilty verdict on me before the committee sitting. Not even the
calmness and the palpable show of
maturity and respect by the committee altered the morose feeling I had within. Again,
I’m not perfect. I won’t boast but I’ve to say that I try with difficulty to be
honest to myself.
People
ought to be responsible and be ready to provide evidence to substantiate claims
they make on anything. Having lived with that conviction, how I was going to be
comfortable, sitting in front of the Ethics Committee and not having enough
material to authenticate my position that, to win matches in the Ghana Premier
League, you have to bribe referees.
The
above was so avoidable. That remark, made on a Kumasi based radio station, is what
compelled the esteemed Ethics Committee to invite me, to help them rid the game
of corruption. Based upon my conviction, I say that, it’s one thing drawing a
conclusion with strong feelings and observations, and a totally different
thing, having hardcore evidence.
Not
that I haven’t known the foregoing. I actually know it, except that, Referee
Issaka Afful’s awful performance in the Medeama-Kotoko match at Tarkwa pushed
me to say something I wouldn’t have admitted if someone else had said it. At
the Ethics Committee, aspects of the audio recording was played to my hearing.
I neither doubted the audio nor its content.
I
however had to explain my claim. Events which characterised that match day ten
league fixture, which Kotoko lost 2-1, were difficult to understand. I told the
committee of how our Accra Representative and Premier League Board (PLB) member,
Thomas Boakye Agyeman was slapped by a Medeama operative for no justifiable
cause.
I
recounted how our photojournalist, Gideon Boakye Botwe was barred from the
match despite having the GFA’s media accreditation card. I also mentioned Referee
Afful’s dubious penalty to Medeama. I recalled how the referee allowed play to
continue for three minutes when Michael Akuffu lied on the pitch injured. One
of our medical personnel, sensing danger, rushed onto the pitch to save the
player’s life only to be given the marching off orders by the referee.
These
developments, especially the referee’s behaviour baffled me. My claim was that,
the referee’s attitude was unfathomable. If he hadn’t been financially influenced
to cheat us, his level of incompetence was incomprehensible. The committee
disagreed. I made a categorical statement, which couldn’t be justified, they
said. I couldn’t say anything to the contrary. They were better positioned to
determine what’s right and wrong upon my explanation.
They
admitted the challenges our game is facing. Those challenges would however be
compounded if unguarded statements would be made by people who should know
better, said the committee members who took turns to advise me. Their advice hit
me in the face although they weren’t harsh. I’ve a confession. The Ethics
Committee we hear of in the media, isn’t the Ethics Committee I met.
This
is a committee that radiates maturity and respect. Of course, that’s the GFA’s
Ethics Committee. We can’t expect less. Presentations by the fine personalities
I met, left me in no doubt that, inside the GFA’s corridors, there are good
things we don’t know or hear. Maybe, I had to appear before the Ethics
Committee to come back and say this or learn more.
Some
of our views on the FA, its personnel and operations are often ill-informed. Thomas
Boakye Agyeman and NCC spokesman, Michael Nkansah, who were there with me, spoke
of how I’ve often backed the PLB on the development of the domestic league. I
won’t change. Going forward, I will be more circumspect and still be critical
of the ills in our game.
I
know not what the committee’s decision will be but that lesson, the lesson that,
drawing conclusions on feelings and observations are in fact, different, from
possessing water-tight, incontrovertible evidence, has been reinforced. I’ve
learnt it again. I thank the Ethics Committee.
