Bofoakwa condemn referee of open bias

Sunyani (B/A), Nov. 6, GNA - The executives of Bofoakwa Tano FC have condemned Accra-based class one referee, Ferguson for showing glaring bias against the club in their Zone 'B' Second Round Premier Soccer League with Berekum Arsenals at the Berekum Golden City Park last Wednesday November 3, 2004.

Bofoakwa led 1-0 at half time before Arsenals eventually won 2-1 of the tension-packed match with one of the goals coming through a doubtful penalty.

Speaking to the GNA Sports in Sunyani on Friday, Mr Joe Bennett, Chairman of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of Bofoakwa said the club had officially written to the General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) about the biased handling of the match leading to their defeat.

Mr. Bennett described Arsenals' penalty goal that cancelled Bofoakwa's first half one-goal lead coming within 15 minutes of play in the second half as very doubtful which should still needs to prick the conscience of Referee Ferguson.

He said that a defender of Bofoakwa in an attempt to clear the ball rather hit the back of the head of a fellow player, Joseph Doe who was not facing the ball.

The Chairman said the irony of it all was that the referee decided to show six players of Bofoakwa yellow cards and including two red cards while the club also suffered five unpopular offside rulings anytime their players had the advantage of scoring.

Mr. Bennett said that Referee Ferguson also disappointed the officials of the team with his refusal to allow the club to play with its Green and White jersey even though the outfit had been endorsed by referee Ferguson at the pre-match conference.

He said that at 3.30 pm when the two teams had reported for the commencement of the match, referee Ferguson disagreed with Bofoakwa for using the jersey with the excuse that the numbers on the jerseys were not reflecting well.

Mr. Bennett alleged that the information they gathered was that officials of Arsenals had gone to tell the referee that Bofoakwa's so-called juju was in that particular jersey, and that the referee should not allow Bofoakwa to use it for the match.

He said "looking at things from that perspective some of us were tempted to believe the allegation because we saw no reason why Referee Ferguson who had earlier vetted and approved of the same Green/White jersey should later turn round to stop us from playing with it at the last hour".

Mr. Bennett also condemned the attitude of Arsenals' chairman, Yakubu for personally heckling Bofoakwa's players, Osei Kuffuor who was subsequently shown the red card.

Mr. Bennett alleged that the Arsenals Chairman rushed onto the field and held Kuffuor from the waist and started to pull him from the field with the explanation that the player was wasting time on the field of play after the referee had given him the marching-off order. He was also equally unhappy with the treatment meted to the same Kuffuor by one of the policemen on duty.

Mr. Bennett said because Arsenals knew of what they had planned to do, there prevented Video Cameramen from capturing the match and its incidence and therefore appealed to GFA to conduct independent investigations into the matter.

The GNA Sports could however not immediately get an official of Arsenals to comment on the allegations.