The 2015/16 Ghana Premier League leaders, Wa All Stars, have made their best start to a league season since they gained promotion to the elite division of Ghana Football three years ago.
Their performance cum results have not wowed many a GPL fan, due to alleged preferential officiating in their favour. Decisions which have gone against them have seen the Referees Review Panel (RRP), a body instituted to oversee the performance of match-day officials, punish the officials in question for decisions they claim were ‘malicious’.
The situation appears to be even more grim, considering also that, officiating in their matches, especially away from home – and notably against Ghana’s two biggest sides ( Hearts of Oak during the first round of the league and Kumasi Asante Kotoko during their match week 17 encounter), has been earning popular attention than their actual display.
The latest incident is their match week 17 clash against the Porcupine Warriors, who they (Wa All Stars) defeated in their first meeting of the on-going 2015/16 season.
In the 20th minute of the Hearts match, supporters of the Phobia boys threw water bottles and other objects onto the field of play, as well as, at the assistant referee 2 for allowing what they perceived as an offside goal (video evidence, however, later justified the assistant referee’s decision) causing Hearts fans, to, at half time, hurl objects at the match officials, while they made their way to the dressing room.
In the second half, anytime a decision went against Hearts Of Oak, their supporters threw water bottles and other objects at the two assistant referees and onto the pitch.
Reports reaching Sportscrusader.com mentioned there was near-mayhem at the Kumasi Sports Stadium, had it not been for the timely intervention of Ghana Black Stars and former Kotoko midfielder, Agyeman Badu, Opoku Nti and Edmund Ackah who stepped up to stop fans from venting their spleen on referee Dally Gagba who they accused of bias officiating in Kotoko’s league match with Wa All Stars.
Though Kotoko won by a solitary goal, it took the intervention of the 3 gentlemen who actually climbed to the Upper Terrace of the VIP to prevent the fans from throwing objects at the referee and his assistants while they were leaving the pitch after the game. The fans were infuriated by the 2nd half performance of the referee so much so that, that the Communications Manager of the club, Kwaku Ahenkorah, had to take the public address system to plead with them not to do anything that could land the club into trouble.
Critics opine that, the “integrity of referees are questioned” when some of their decisions go against Wa All Stars” and that, “they are influenced”.
Others are of the opinion that the RRP’s decision to suspend Referee Alexander Nsiah and Assistant referee Shine Ayitey for awarding a ‘dubious penalty’ in favour of Bechem United in their match-day 8 game against Wa All Stars, implied that, the referees are not supposed to make mistakes, that they are super human and also, that, even if they make mistakes, they are not honest ones.”
With these incidents, especially the ones against Wa All Stars’ closest competitors in the title race(Hearts and Kotoko) in hindsight, would one be far from right in making the inference that Kwesi Nyantakyi( President of the GFA)’s ownership of the club(Wa All Stars) is remotely influencing referees’ preferential treatment of the Wa-based side?
Kindly share your views below.
Feature: Who Dares An Untouchable Wa All Stars?
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