Referees play a major role in every sporting activity.
From the Umpire in tennis to the video Referees in basketball, these men and
women serve as neutral grounds between the left wing and the right wing.
Some people argue as to why one person
should be given the power to control an instance of a multi-million-dollar
industry -- Sports -- well the short and simple answer to this misconception is
that Referees don't control the game; they simply keep the game balanced and in
keeping the game balanced they depict some veto power, which is unquestionable on
the field of play but subject to review after a game -- lots of power for one person right?
Some Refs though seem to be corruptible and
if they are bought , they become bad
influence .
Referees are
the most honest and trustworthy humans in the world. Referees are
groomed and trained to the highest level and sometimes physically tested to meet the requirement of an athlete.
Honesty, Trust and Athleticism. If these are
the criteria for a good Referee then why are African Referees not respected?
It’s sad that sometimes you don’t see
African Refs on the big stage like the FIFA world cup, Champions League or even
the Club world cup.
Here are three reasons why African Refs
are not properly recognized.
1.WEAK AFRICAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATIONS
Football associations are established to
regulate and facilitate official business of football clubs and footballers
within a country and overseas.
Most African football association only care
about managing the local league, leaving their other responsibilities on hold.
This does not only make the work of the
association one sided but also brings the credibility of the association
down.
African FAs have little or no voice
on rising matters and decisions on the big stage and so African matters are
not given the same ears as their European counterparts .
Referees as stated earlier are to be
trusted and if parent associations of these Refs are not seen as credible
on the big table then how can they be entrusted to handle big games.
It’s time for African FAs to sit up and
work to protect the future and integrity of Referees.
2.TRAINING FACILITIES
Let’s face the fact. There are just a few Referee training
facilities in the world but in Africa, there are close to none centers for
training our Refs.
African football associations don’t even
run full time accredited Referee schools. The ones that do, only run camps
which last a maximum three months .
It’s hard for ordinary people who aspire
to be match officials to get access to the right education for them to be
properly groomed and trained for the world.
Training should be an integral part
of every one’s life if success is desired; African Referees don’t get this
training and so their confidence trembles whenever they are taking big
decisions if given the chance .
The credibility of African Referees drop
day in day out as a result of poor judgement demonstrated on the field of play,
all because of lack of proper training.
If African Referees want to be on the list
of the high ranks, then they should start pushing for more training centers and stop
sitting idle, waiting for the FAs .
3. CORRUPTION
African Referees are one of the most
corruptible officials in the world aside from Politicians -- TBT. A
good Referee should be neutral on all ground, he should not be red nor black
nor white; neutral is the only choice a Ref has.
Blame should not be shoved in the way of Refs
so easily because sometimes they don’t have any choice but to accept
bribes given to them . The salaries these Refs receive are not
sufficient and so they do anything and accept anything to make ends meet and
this includes taking bribes for game manipulation. This was the case when Joseph Lamptey
,a Ghanaian Ref , manipulated the world cup qualifier between South Africa
and Senegal .
So long as African Refs don’t make enough
money the right way, they will always tend to other ways to make ends meet.
There isn't much money in Africa, that’s
a fact. If African FAs can't help with the money, FIFA or any other organization should step in and help.
If no one steps in Financially then honestly speaking African Refs
will always lead the corruption table.
FT9
Comments
Post a Comment