The 2014/2015 Premier League might have stalled and delayed; but when it does resume, our referees would be supervised and marked by a new type of match commissioner.
The commissioners would be more professional and observant in the discharge of their duties. The Ghana Football Association which has received a few bashings and criticisms from many football fans because of the unfortunate paralyses brought to our league matches owing to the now well-publicised court injunction, has been working hard in other important developmental areas of the league.
During the first week of this November and over a three-day period, 15 match commissioners went back to school to sharpen their skills and abilities. Ghana’s well-known FIFA Instructor, Joseph Wellington, was at hand to run an Elite match commissioners course at the world acclaimed Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence at Prampram.
Indeed, although I have acted for some years now as a match commissioner, this was my first exposure to a formal and well conducted seminar for match commissioners. My earlier insight and knowledge into match commissioning were through random-teachings during seminars for Referees, Instructors and assessors.
With this elite course, the commissioners’ technical abilities have been sharpened and their horizons widened. Referees, who are masters of the Laws of the Game and their interpretation and implementation, should now be in good company as they work together with those who commission their various matches.
Already, the referees themselves have benefited from their specialised elite courses. But it would be beneficial to them if they would position themselves in the knowledge and role of their match commissioners who would normally summarise their observations into various marks.
For example, when the match commissioner gives a final total mark of 8.0 to the referee, this generally shows that the referee performed his job according to expected standards. Any marks below this should serve as a pointer to the referee to work harder and improve upon his performance. Since the commissioner has to correctly assess the referees’ performances, it means that he himself must study and be abreast of the Laws of the Game.
Additionally, the match commissioner in awarding marks and grading the performance of the referee would take into account the degree of difficulties in the match, since the circumstances before and during the entire match would reflect on the demands made on the referee.
During a particular season, a match commissioner may meet a referee in more than one match. It is, therefore, useful that the commissioners are impressed upon not to carry previous or earlier mistakes, incidents and expectations into their next encounter with referees to pre-judge them.
The seminar did not only cover the interpretation of the 17 Laws of the Game, but it also highlighted the fact that in arriving at decisions of whether a player had committed a foul or not, there should be many areas of considerations that should go into taking a particular decision.
This is very important and crucial. Yes, there may be a situation of Handling the ball, but the following questions must be thoroughly considered:
Another common area of fouls committed by players is the question of SIMULATION. Now, simulation in plain everyday language is the foul committed by a player when he PRETENDS to have been fouled with the intent of deceiving the referee that he rather had been fouled. And so, both referees and match commissioners must consider the following:
In all cases of deciding on any foul and misconduct by a player, the necessary considerations must be taken into account. These elements of considerations are really not new introductions into refereeing and match commissioning. But they have been widened over the years as the game assume new dimensions and players fouls and misconducts come under new and increasing scrutiny and interpretation.
This was very evident during the 2014 Brazil FIFA World Cup tournament. It is therefore very important that all match officials, including match commissioners are well schooled to understand and carry out their different roles to the progress and development of the game.
Indeed, during the World Cup tournament, some of us who had not been exposed to the more comprehensive way of this aspect of interpreting the laws, were shouting “foul, yellow card, eh, red card” when none existed.
It was, therefore, very good that this all important Elite Course was organised by the GFA for the match commissioners, including even some Executive committee members of the FA, who officiate as match commissioners.
The question however is whether those who did not attend and, therefore, did not benefit from the lessions thought and learnt would be listed to commission matches during the next league season when and if the league resumes.
The other question is what happens to the reports of the match commissioners. During my days as a member of the FA Referees Committee, Mr Abra-Appiah, the head of the Premier League Board, made sure that there was a technically knowledgeable person who was at the FA almost every Tuesday and Wednesday to work on the reports of the commissioners and referees for necessary action. That way, prompt and quick actions were taken on the reports. Perhaps, for the lack of funds this project has either been stopped or scaled down. There are three different reports from Match commissioners, referees and referee assessors for almost every Premier League match.
There must be good reasons for this kind of match coverage; but their usefulness can only be appreciated when they are examined and worked on. The situation where we appear to be interested only in matches that record incidents of violence and assault is not good enough. Every league match has a story to tell, either good or bad about referees especially. Therefore every report deserves scrutiny and action. That way we would be helping to grow and develop referees in the discharge of their duties.
The Elite Course for the commissioners was a very useful one. The venue and facilities were very good, although the usual water problem in the Greater Accra Region as a whole was a minus. The executives of the Match Commissioners Association did their best.
It is hoped that their association would develop the strength and character of the Referees Association, so that we would have a situation whereby only approved and listed commissioners would have the authority to handle matches.
Although most of us could not measure up to the high FIFA standards set by Instructor Joseph Wellington during his many exams and project works, we all ended up with improved knowledge and abilities.
Perhaps. the only missing item from the seminar was that unlike other Elite Courses, normally for referees, I had nothing to show back home that I had been away for three days on a Match Commissioners’ Course.
