Referee J.O Lamptey
Over the weekend, Africa has been busy with football action with the 2018 World Cup qualifiers dominating the scene. Ghana's 2-0 load to Egypt as well as Nigeria's 3-1 lashing of Algeria dominated the headlines but a nasty incident which happened on Saturday has become a topical issue and continues to dominate the headlines as one of the worse moments in world football. And sadly, a Ghanaian was involved. Referee. J. O. Lamptey was at the center of that game.
A dubious penalty he awarded South Africa against Senegal did not only invite the wrath of Senegal against him but also made him (in particular) and Ghana at large a laughing stock to the football world. Ghana has become a center of mockery to the rest of the world especially Africa. Even beneficiaries of the penalty were amazed.
O. Lamptey is now the executioner and anytime there is a difficult match, a tie-breaker or a decider, his name comes up, and truly he will execute, which is not good for Ghana football.
J.O. Lamptey keeps embarrassing Ghana on the international stage yet he is still there and the Referees Association of Ghana doesn’t care about that.
I remember him in the Al Ahly vs Zamalek game in Egypt where he awarded a dubious penalty which nearly brought the game to an end. Ghana's name was everywhere as the rest of Africa made mockery of the sort of match officials we have in this country.
I also remember the Afcon qualifier between DR Congo and Angola where he awarded two questionable penalties, one to each side.
Lamptey's poor show on the local scene has been left unnoticed which has led him to where he is now taken the embarrassment.
Do you remember the 'Yemmo Biom' incident at the Accra Sports Stadium during a Ghalca Top 4 game? He was the man at the center of that controversy. Heart of Lions aborted the game because of the way he was handling the game, awarding dubious penalties to Kotoko.
The middle league clash between Medeama SC and Ebusua Dwarfs which saw Dwarfs qualifying dubiously compelling Moses Armah to buy Kessben FC and renaming it Medeama with the original Medeama becoming Wasaman.
Tema Youth suffered a similar bad officiating in his hands when they played Great Olympics at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in the 2013 Division One Middle League which saw Olympics qualify.
Just last year, J.O.Lamptey was at the center when Kotoko played Medeama SC in the 2015 FA Cup finals at Essipong and an excellent goal scored by Kotoko was denied. Medeama became champions eventually.
It could have been a mistake or an error in the first game but too many errors mean only one thing; incompetence.
We have recently seen fine upcoming referees who are young and ready to make a name for themselves and their performance on the field is a clear demonstration of near-excellence.
Awal Mohammed, a class one referee officiated the titanic clash between Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko at the Accra Sports Stadium in the 2015/16 Ghana Premier League, a game which attracted the largest number of eyeballs in the history of a Hearts/Kotoko encounters, raking in a little over $1m.
Awal was hugely lauded by all who watched the game and rated as one of the best officials we have, yet he is a class one referee and is not even given the opportunity for a FIFA badge, meanwhile others have it and are soiling the image of the country with it.
Referee Issaka Afful and his colleagues were recently lauded by UEFA after excelling in a refereeing course in Europe, yet they are not even given the opportunity to attend courses for FIFA badges. They are still class one referees.
Referee Seidu Bomisson has been handling a FIFA badge for so many years yet I don't remember the last time he handled an international game. Why are we doing this to ourselves? What is Bomisson keeping the badge for? Why is the RAG not ready to give the younger ones the badge to increase our chances of seeing our referees at the FIFA World Cup in the future.
J.O. Lamptey is gradually becoming the worse Ghanaian referee on the international scene yet the Referees Association of Ghana and the Referees Appointment Committee keep him there and don't give young ones the opportunity to move up.
If every institution is to work assiduously towards developing the game, we shall get there. People will ignorantly blame innocent officials for such bad acts yet there are people in charge who fail to do their jobs well.
Enough of the embarrassment from J.O.Lamptey.
The RAG must act NOW!