The Public Relations Officer for Nsoatreman FC, Joel Kofi Gyempeh, stated that they were warned that if they chose to forfeit the betPawa Ghana Premier League match against Accra Great Olympics due to floodlight issues, points would be deducted from their record.
Gyempeh highlighted the team’s concerns regarding the floodlight situation leading up to their match at the Accra Sports Stadium on November 6, 2023.
He expressed that the club felt threatened by a Football Association official and experienced unfair treatment during the game.
During the second half, the game had to be paused for over 20 minutes due to apparent floodlight malfunctions, impacting the players’ visibility.
In an interview with Citi Sports, Gyempeh voiced frustration at the situation, citing the team’s struggle with visibility, which was reported toboth the bench and the match commissioner. Despite their complaints, the referee, prompted by the match commissioner, decided to continue the game, stating that visibility was sufficient from their perspective.
Despite ongoing player complaints, the match commissioner eventually compelled the referee to briefly stop the game.
However, the match commissioner allegedly relayed a message from the Football Association, indicating that the game should proceed without floodlights, with a warning that forfeiting the match would result in a loss of three points from the game and a further three points in the future.
“Our players raised a concern to the bench, that they could not see, that they struggled with visibility. Our bench also notified the match commissioner to do something about it, if they could give us light,” he stated.
“The match commissioner went to prompt the referee, but then the message from the referee to the match commissioner was that he could see, once he could see he thought it was ok so we should carry on with the game. And the fact is that, the players could not see, so they were complaining about it.
Upon several complaints, the match commissioner forced the referee to halt the game a bit. Surprisingly the message from the match commissioner according to him, came from the FA, was that, we should manage it and play the game without the floodlight and finally there was a threat from someone from the FA was that, if we are forfeiting the match, we should bear it in mind that, we are going to loose the three points from the game and a further three points.”