Sports Ministry intervention saves Normalization Committee from disgrace

The decision by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to intervene in the impasse between the Normalization Committee and the Referees Association of Ghana has yielded positive results as the latter have decided to officiate the remaining matches of the Special Competition.

The referees, in an earlier communique threatened to boycott matches of the Special Competition following the NC’s refusal to settle allowances owed them.

“We write to inform you that the Referees Association of Ghana after carefully deliberating on your failure to redeem your promise of paying all outstanding officiating fees owed our members before close of April 2019, we decided to call on all our members to suspend handling all football match officiating at all levels and at all league centers from tomorrow, 7th May 2019”.

“RAG is compelled to take this tough decision because several letters were written drawing your attention to the unpaid officiating allowances and other things which were consistently not attended to. All RAG members owed are finding it difficult to travel to match venues due to the unpaid allowances.

The Sports Ministry after learning of the threat by the referees held a meeting with the two ‘disputing’ parties after which the referees agreed to call of their strike and return to the pitch.

The spokesperson of the ministry confirmed to Citi FM that the referees have decided to return to the pitch and handle the rest of the games whiles they wait on the Ministry and NC to settle the arrears.

"The meeting was basically about the unpaid allowances and this has an effect on the NC tournament and by June Ghana is expected to submit its reps for African competitions and that had to be resolved. What I can tell you is all issues have been resolved and they have rescinded their decision" he told Citi FM.

This means that the round of 10 matches which are slated for Wednesday, May 8 will come off across all centres.