As the entire world waits for next month’s kick-off of the 2014 edition of the World Cup, a lot has already happened to educate, inform and inspire all lovers of football.
Nations desirous of hosting further tournaments have had a lot to learn. All participating teams have also already learnt a lot before they engage in hostilities with their opponents. And as referees and referee managers, we have also gone through a lot of organisational lessons.
We have seen the list of our colleague referees and assistants who have been assembled in preparation for the Mundial. We are all well aware that FIFA has always maintained a list of elite referees based on confederation or regional levels.
From this elite list FIFA and its agents monitor continuously the performance and ability of potential referees. Apart from their performances and abilities, the physical fitness and ages of the referees are also known.
For example no referee or assistant referee who was born before 1969 has been included in this year’s list, except three assistant referees, Anaz Hakan from Australia, Roman Relamel Sergio Mauricio from Chile, Fererani Renato, and Stefani Andrea, both from Italy and Cann Darren from England. All of them are assistant referees and have already handled previous World Cup matches.
Surely, Brazil 2014 will be their last World Cup appearances. The age factor is, therefore, very crucial and important in FIFA’s selection process. No active referee goes beyond forty-five years. As a member country of FIFA, this should get us, referee managers, and indeed, our football association, thinking and planning.
Presently, none of our FIFA referees and assistant referees has been invited to the Brazilian tournament. And by the next World Cup tournament in 2018, none of our experienced Ghanaian FIFA referees would be qualified to be invited. We have managed to put two twenty-seven year olds on the FIFA list with the hope that things would improve for us as a nation. So far, they have both travelled out twice and our hope is that in the next four years they could be invited. We still have a lot of work to do.
We have to see referees who would be between twenty-five and twenty-seven years on the list, since FIFA’s own regulations do not admit referees below age twenty-five into their list.
It is unfortunate that our number one referee, Joseph Lamptey, could not make it owing to a personal hatred and dislike for him by an outside agent, indeed an Egyptian. Whatever it takes, we should all work hard for newly listed Daniel Laryea, Prosper Adii and Eric Nantiere to represent us during subsequent World Cup matches.
One other criteria that FIFA selectors employed in selecting the World Cup referees is what they termed “their quality in football understanding by being able to read the game”.
They also saw in the selected referees and their assistants the understanding and ability of the teams “technical approaches towards each game”. These are very loaded and demanding requirements for referees. Every referee knows all the seventeen FIFA Laws. What FIFA selectors look for is their application and implementation to enable them to understand and read the game.
That is refereeing at a higher and practical level. This requires a lot of study and investment in refereeing. And luckily, the resources and materials are now available.
During our time, in the 1990s, we did not benefit from referee courses and seminars as our present referees do have now. Indeed, we virtually had only one very qualified and effective referee’s instructor in the person of the late Major Lamptey. Now, apart from Mr Joseph Wellington, our Ghanaian CAF-FIFA instructor, there are many qualified instructors all over the country.
Our problem rather is our refusal or inability to employ them usefully. This is due also to our rather selfish attitudes in involving all available instructors in our training programmes. We should be able to draw up regular training courses on district and regional levels more often. Nobody should talk of lack of funds. The course participants should fund the courses.
Our inability to be among the world’s topmost referees in Brazil should serve as a motivation for us to put our house in order and strive to be part of the next team of referees in subsequent tournaments. From our African continent we have referees and assistant referees from South Africa, Cameroon, Algeria, The Gambia and Cote d’ Ivoire. The last time that a Ghanaian middle referee, the late Mr. B. K. Duomoh was in the World Cup was in 1982. And the last time that we had an assistant referee was in 2006 in the person of Justice Yeboah.
It is good that our local Ghana Football Association has seen some stability over the past ten years since the days of Papa Kwesi Nyantakyi. We really suffered from the instability before him.
For our football to shine on the African continent and on the world stage, we need stability at home. Football is not party politics of ‘moko aya ni moko aba’.
That kind of ‘democracy’ does not promote football growth and development. How long hasn’t Sepp Blatter been in FIFA as Secretary General and President? And have we not all benefited. We need to prop up our leaders in football administration, especially, at the national level.
We need to have such leaders to be in CAF and FIFA committees. Some of the problems affecting Ghanaian referees’ participation at both continental and world levels can be easily attributed to our lack of Ghanaian presence at continental and world levels. Smaller countries such as Togo and The Gambia have had their referees as continental and world match officials because they have had their nationals among referees’ selectors.
We can do same by avoiding the Pull Him Down (PHD) attitude. One of the reasons why our Joseph Lamptey is not in Brazil is because an Arab has sworn, perhaps to show him where power lies. And so when he does well during his physical fitness test, he must be failed during his medical test.
When one passes a physical fitness test, everybody sees it. But when someone tells you that you have failed a medical test, what can you say or do. One World Cup is coming and, it will be gone. Another one and indeed, more will come. We should all gird our loins and ensure that our referees participate.
