Ref Sessay banned for 4 games after denying Oly penalty

The GFA Referees Committee has handed Referee Hamid Sessay a four-match ban after he failed to award a penalty to Accra Great Olympics during a Ghana Premier League match against West Africa Football Academy (WAFA).

The Committee arrived at the decision after receiving two complaints from Great Olympics on the performance of the Referee, the GFA said in a statement.

The committee found that Referee Hamid Sessay "was generally not at his best for that particular game".

The first complaint was on a penalty claim after Gladson Awako "was heavily brought down" in the 62nd minute inside the penalty box.

The second complaint relates to a foul on the same player in the 70th minute which Olympics again felt they deserved a penalty.

"After a critical review, the Committee found that the referee was correct not to give a penalty in the complaint on the 62nd-minute because the incident happened outside the box and there was no contact between the defender and the attacking player," the statement said.

"However it was found out that the second incident merited a penalty because the defender brought down the Olympics forward in the penalty box in the full view of the referee. The referee, therefore, made a clear and obvious error in ignoring it.

"It was therefore recommended that a four-match ban be placed on referee Sessay for the clear and obvious error. The length of the ban takes into account the fact that this is the first infraction on his part this season".