Owuraku Nsiah Writes: GFA Catch them Young Policy – Two years on so far so good
The Ghana Football Association in 2020 launched the “Catch Them Young Refereeing” policy aimed at unearthing young talented referees across the country.
The Catch Them Young Policy is designed to identify, educate and train young talents between the ages of 13-16 to officiate juvenile matches within their regions as was explained during the launch in Accra.
Over two years into the implementation of the policy we have seen many young talented referees accross the country officiating juvenile football, divisional football and community festive games.
This policy is very good one and if it is allowed to run uninterruptedly for the next 10 to 15 years it is likely we will be churning out young referees but with many years of experience.
Just like every other policy it comes with some challenges of which if not properly addressed could derail the success of the policy.
SAFETY OF THE YOUNG REFERES
The safety of these young referees when officiating the juvenile matches leaves little to be desired as they are intimidated and threatened to be beaten by coaches, team owners and supporters when decisions don’t go their way.
I was once manhandled and my phone seized by supporters at the Asem park in kumasi in 2021 for videoing supporters and team officials who wanted to beat a young referee for awarding a penalty against them.
Surprisingly, these young referees command huge respect from the colts players as they usually approach these young referees with their hands at their back and you hardly hear the players cursing these referees. But the threats on their lives by the supporters and club officials are some of the things that the regional football associations should not entertain.
THE NUMBER OF HOURS SPENT DURING GAMES
Another issue that also needs attention is the number of hours spent officiating during match days. At some venues the matches start around.
Although the young referees (mostly four in number) are rotated for the games, it becomes evidently clear that after 1pm you could clearly see fatigue in these boys and hence are not able to run and will be making mistakes that didn’t occur during their early games in the morning.
We can double the number of young referees to cater for the officiating needs for the day.
QUALITY OF MEALS SERVED
We can also improve the quality of meals (breakfast and lunch) and drinks (rich in vitamins) we give them during the match days to energise them. I appreciate these relatively quality meals will come at a cost therefore we need an adequate budget line for it.
This project has the tendency of solving the seemingly lack of quality officiating we are experiencing now at the highest level of our games in Ghana as these young referees would have risen through the ranks holding all other factors constant.
Source: Owuraku Nsiah
