Just a week before Africa’s soccer fiesta, Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2015, opened last Saturday, the organising body selected its final list of referees and their assistants who would be in charge of the various matches.
The two Ghanaian referees, Joseph Lamptey, a Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) middle referee and Malik Salifu, an Assistant FIFA referee, did well to pass the final physical fitness which was conducted on Sunday, January 11th.
This followed their successful medical exams which they had to undergo before the fitness test.
Two referees from the Sudan and Mauritius, however, had to take their flights back home after falling to pass the fitness tests. With this, the remaining referees can now relax with normal light trainings for their remaining days in Equatorial Guinea.
But this will not quite be the end of the waiting game for the referees and their assistants. It is expected that one-third of their number would be sent back to their home countries after the preliminary rounds of the competition when eight of the participating 16 teams would also be going back home after being eliminated.
This is normally a very painful stage, since some of the referees may be taking their return flights back home, not because of their performance, but just because, it would not be morally advisable to keep them while teams from their home countries remained in the quarter and semi-finals of the competition.
This practice is unlike what happens to FIFA referees who are invited to FIFA World Cup tournaments. With FIFA, all the referees who remain after the preliminary stages are free to stay throughout the rest of the tournament. Because FIFA has been able to get a lot of financial resources from its world sponsors, it actually does not on ‘per diem’ basis, but it actually gives them lump sum in the form of financial rewards.
In the case of Confedration of African Football (CAF), the match officials are paid based on ‘per diem’ that is according to the number of days that they stayed and worked before and during the tournament. And the ‘per diem’ can be as low as $200 for the match officials.
This is a vast contrast with the fifty and $55,000 that each World Cup referee was paid during the recent tournament in Brazil.
It is unfortunate to state that the length of time that referees Joseph Lamptey and Malik Salifu may stay for the tournament could be influenced by the performance of our national team, the Black Stars.
Both referees, in the spirit of patriotism and national interest, indicated that if they had to return home earlier than they deserve, owing to our Black Stars doing well and playing in the quarter and semi finals, they would gladly accept that situation. As they put it – “Nation first”.
The inclusion of the two Ghanaian referees has gladdened the hearts of many referees in Ghana and even that of Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi and his Ghana Football Association (GFA) members.
The Chairman of the GFA referees committee, Mr M. N. S. Doe, who was on an official assignment in the Egyptian capital, Cairo on hearing the news of the two referees passing their medical and fitness tests did not waste any time in sending a message of congratulations and well-wishes to both Joseph Lamptey and Malik Salifu.
The acting Chairman of the Ghana Referees Association, Mr Joe Debrah, also sent a similar message to them on behalf of all Ghanaian referees. That is solidarity at work.
It is our wish that our African referees and their assistants would put up the best of their performances to enhance the image of refereeing on our continent. Even at the World Cup level, there are many criticisms of the performance of some of the referees. Some of these criticisms centre around the perception that some referees are under ‘advice’ perhaps from some interested groups to be lenient to players of the host nation.
The thinking is that, in order to maximise home crowd patronage and interest in the tournament, an early exit of the host team would decrease match attendance and mass patronage. These can only be perceptions, since all referees especially those who perform at very high levels are more committed to their professional abilities than societal etiquettes and considerations. It is hoped that our referees would be professional and nothing else.
Additionally, our AFCON referees should remember that football and refereeing have become global and very common among followers of the game including those on the African continent. And many football fans have developed intelligent and better appreciation and understanding of the laws of the game.
As the matches come on our television screens and other video and media, there will be critical minds who would analyse the performance of both players and match officials.
Luckily, most of the AFCON referees are not new to tournaments of this nature and magnititude. Referees such as Neant Alioum from Cameroun, Abdelhak Etchiaili from Algeria, Redoune Achik from Morocco and Evarist Menkounde from Cameroun were all at last year’s Brazil World Cup tournament.
The good thing about refereeing is the silent competition and desire to perform creditably to stay in the good books of their assessors and managers. For as one competition ends, another one begins.
The desire to keep on refereeing ‘till the bones are no more’ or until age or nature intervenes is one of the reasons why they try to do well. What is more is that the referees are going to meet the same teams that they handled at the qualifying stages.
For our two ambassadors, they should appreciate the fact that this is about the first time that we have got a perfect pair of middle and assistant referee catching the eyes of the selectors and appointing authorities.
The AFCON tournaments should also serve as an important stepping stone to get invitation to the next World Cup. Already, Joseph Lamptey has been named as the best referee for the last 2013/2014 season.
Clearly, the next assignment for our Ghanaian referee managers and trainers should be ‘which referees come next’ after these two. FIFA has just released national lists of referees and their assistants for 2015.
Indeed, as a country, we did well to maintain all the names and number that we have had for 2014 except one assistant referee who has lost his position to another Ghanaian now put in his place.
Thus, we still can boast our seven male referees, Seven FIFA assistant male referees, four FIFA female referees and four FIFA assistant female referees. But the question still remains difficult to answer.
Apart from two new referees and one assistant referee, the ages of the others are such that there could be a vacuum after Joseph Lamptey and Malik Salifu. The rest of our four FIFA male referees are over 40 (forty) years, that is even if the ages that they carry could be well established by their parents.
The problem about inflating one’s age is nature. Natural age cannot be cheated. Physical fitness in most cases would reveal one’s actual age. There was this referee during our days who so reduced his age, because he had a cute and small figure. He had to confess during a national physical fitness test saying: “when you are old, you are old, I cannot go on.”
And, thus, nature retired him. This gentleman was actually almost 60 (sixty years) of age, but he claimed officially that he was 49 ( forty nine). He never wanted to be 50 (fifty) which was the retiring age for local referees.
Now that we have two very young referees on the FIFA list, our hope is that we shall encourage another very young referee to take the natural vacancy that will occur at the end of this year. And from there we can really plan and ensure that our referees continue to perform at the international level.
The standard that we set today must not only be maintained, but it should also be improved upon. And once we start, we should relegate the negative practice of favouring friends and family members at the expense of ability and competence.
We wish our two AFCON referees, Joseph Lamptey and Malik Salifu well. For their achievements will be Ghana’s achievement and advertisement.
