Executive council approves new refereeing structure

The Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has approved a new refereeing structure for the federation.

The new structure is to ensure the separation of personnel in the various functions of refereeing in Ghana. It seeks to consolidate the gains achieved so far and to strive for new heights.

The structure includes the Referees Committee, Match Review Panel, Assessors and Classification Panel and the Refereeing Department with different personnel serving on each function of refereeing to drive for more effectiveness and speedy response to complaints by clubs.

The Referees Committee will continue its work of appointing referees to all competitions and all matches organized or sanctioned by the GFA including Futsal and Beach Soccer matches.

The Assessors and Classification Panel will analyze, evaluate and assess the performance of referees by using a marking system provided by FIFA to classify and categorize referees to help the development, promotion and demotion of referees by the Referees Committee.

The Refereeing Department, whose responsibility includes providing administrative support and assistance to the Referees Committee, will be headed by the Referees Manager, who reports to the General Secretary of the GFA.

The Refereeing Department will also have its own Instructors (Physical Instructors and Technical Instructors) and other experts who would support the education of referees in Ghana.

The GFA intends to roll out a comprehensive refereeing development program to recruit and train Referee Assessors, Referee Instructors (Physical and Technical), Beach Soccer Referees, Futsal Referees, Women Referees, Grassroots Referees (Catch them young policy), Talented and Promising Referees. There will also be refresher courses for category 1, 2 and 3 referees.

The GFA would continue to invest in referees by providing the requisite equipment to aide their work.

The new structure is aimed at ensuring that the Association implements fully the FIFA regulations on the organization of refereeing in member Associations.