The Referees Committee of the GFA has handed referee Hamid Sessay a four-match ban for denying Great Olympics a penalty in an incident which happened in the box ” in the full view of the referee ” in respect of the Ghana Premier League match between Great Olympics and WAFA in Accra.
According to the Committee, the home team – in this case, Great Olympics, filed a complaint against the referee after the match on the performance of the referee on the day. Great Olympics accused referee Sessay of obviously denying them a penalty on two occasions; a 62nd and 70th minute foul on their striker Gladson Awako inside the penalty box which in their view, should have been a penalty to them.
After a critical scrutiny of the match video by the Referees Committee, the referee was exhalnerated on the incident that was alleged to have happened in the in the 62nd minute, saying, “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”.
However, the Committee found the referee guilty with respect to the 70th minute incident, saying, ” 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”.
In its ruling, the Committee stated; “It was therefore recommend 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”.
