During the meeting with the parliamentary select Committee for sports, the Chairman of the Referees association of Ghana spoke about a lot of things ranging from the broken relationship with the FA to the salary referees receive in officiating of games.
A popular one being that the referees receive just 1000Ghs for officiating a game with which Transportation, Accommodation and food are included in that same amount.
Joe Debrah speaking on Sikka FM 89.5 Kumasi said Saijah needs not to complain about that.
He noted that he was voted out for Saijah to come in because he was not in bed with the football federation, because he would not sit down for to be cheated by the FA.
George Saijah is a member of the FA technical committee and also is the the referees Chairman , so how can you fight for the interest of the referees? He added. This is what they wanted him to do and he decided not.
On the referees welfare, in his almost 7 years in office, he made sure to have a meeting with the FA before every season starts, to look at how many personnel will be needed and discuss the remuneration involved.
But this practice has been ignored since the 2019/20 season.
As the bible said, you can’t serve two masters at the same time, you can’t be a Referee Association of Ghana (RAG) chair and also be a member of the FA technical committee as this committee is different from the referees committee. It is therefore not possible to fight for your guys as that will be fighting with your Boss(FA).
“In my time I was autonomous, so I could challenge the FA if things weren’t right. We could come out and say we are going on a strike and will not officiate games.”
Debrah admonishes Saijah saying he should rather feel ashamed sitting before the select Committee and talking about the remunerations the referees receive.
“As a Chairman, do you fight for your Children”
Looking at the sum of 1000GHs and how it includes everything mentioned earlier, if team officials provide for these officiating officials and make them feel comfortable, whay won’t they accept? And remember there is no free launch in Ghana. So today if referees are corrupt, it is the doing of the FA. He added.
