Sombo Freedom Stars, a Division Two side in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region is raising red flags over officiating in its last league match with Power SC on Friday, February 10.
The team in a Facebook post on its official handle vented its frustration over what it said was an unfair officiating on the part of the centre referee, vowing to resist such tendencies in future.
In an interview with Upper West Blog, the club's Public Relations Officer (PRO), Abdul-Rafiq Prince, on Saturday, February 11, 2023, denied knowledge of the said Facebook post on their handle criticising the performance of the referee for the match.
He told me the post I sighted might not be from their official handle since as the mouthpiece of the club, he is the one responsible for managing the platform.
However, our checks indicate those comments were indeed made from the official Facebook handle of the team even though the comment got deleted shortly after ending our interview with him.
There are two Facebook accounts in the name of the team which are Sombo Freedom Stars FC and Sombo Freedom Stars with the former being their official account.
The latter is a dormant account with its last two and three updates being in June and July 2021 respectively with the most recent one being in January 28, 2023, which is just an update of their cover photo, and nothing else.
But just around 1900 GMT on Saturday, February 11, the club made yet another post claiming to have been robbed of the match which the post termed as "a day light robbery."
Touching on their encounter with Power SC yesterday that ended in a 2-1 defeat, the PRO expressed the club's displeasure over some decisions taken by the centre referee.
He argues that:"The referee took some decisions that we weren't happy about. He wasn't consistent in his rulings. In the first half, our opponents were making hard tackles on our boys but the referee didn't see it necessary to flash his cards. But when in the second department of the game, our boys also decided to play same way, he started dashing out yellow cards every where. There was even an instant their goalkeeper targetted our striker with a cynical tackle which he avoided and the goalkeeper ended up injuring himself but the referee didn't show him a card. But when the striker tried to latch on a spilled ball by the goalkeeper and accidentally kicked the keeper in the process, he was given a card. You see, there was no consistency."
When asked if they had filed an official complaint to the Regional Football Association (RFA), he responded in the negative and said that the club had no intention to file one.
He however told Upper West Blog he has raised the same concerns with the referees' committee chairman.
The Upper West Regional Division Two League has entered its fourth week with every team aiming to qualify into the second tier of Ghana football - Division One League.
There have been so much concerns from football fans regarding the quality of officiating in the ongoing league which is only in its Match day 4.
Source: Upper West Blog