The former Knight of the whistle has shed light on how top members of the football association and referees’appointment committee manipulate results even before kick off
Former Ghana Premier League referee Stephen Yaw Nsor has insisted that there is leadership failure since match fixing scandals involves top officials at the Football Association and within the referees’ top hierarchy.
According to Nsor, who was once ranked the best center referee from Brong Ahafo region, who was at a point caught in a dilemma when two of his bosses advised him to manipulate the results of a game for their clubs.
After failing one of them, Nsor claims that he was unofficially suspended and did not officiate games for quite a long time.
“I officiated a game involving Dreams FC and Istanbul match at Akyem Techiman and two referees’ appointment committee members were trying to show me which side should win the game,” Nsor told Nimde3 FM.
“One of them said Dreams FC should be the winners while the other insisted to me that Istanbul must win the game at all cost. So I was left in the middle and in a state of dilemma. They are all our leaders in terms of officiating. I am telling you the truth. They were part of the referees leaderships but had their interest.
“They were with the teams. Some teams can pay for it but a referee who has an interest will demand. It is still going on. At a time, Tamale City came to Berekum Arsenal but Arsenal’s protested against a certain referee that he’s been officiating only the games of Tamale City before they changed him. It is still going on. I am telling you.”
“In that game, I was talking about, we went all out and fairly officiated it but Dreams FC lost and after that, I was put on ‘ice’ by the one who was expecting us to let Dreams win. He is a family member of Kurt Okraku but at that time Kurt wasn’t the FA boss. He later put me on ‘ice’ meaning I wasn’t officially suspended but in his own decision he suspended me. They were not giving me matches.
“I don’t know his position but maybe when the appointment committee meets he has an interest and will try to make some decisions. I wasn’t charged but…the video is there, we can go for it and show me where I made a mistake but all because I didn’t help Dreams FC to win, I was put on ‘ice’.”
Nsor further talked about how some Ghana Football Association top members influenced him to help Hearts of Oak to win FA Cup game since they wanted the Phobians to face Asante Kotoko in the final and that forced him to retire prematurely.
“I went for Hearts and Elmina Sharks game some years back. It was an FA Cup game around somewhere in 2017. Before the game, some Gurus at the FA influenced the match (some are still there). They forced us to let Hearts of Oak win so that they can meet Kotoko. I am telling you. It was played in Accra. The park was good, the weather too was very condusive for football. Elmina Sharks thought they were going to beat Hearts of Oak, checking the jama and their moral level ahead of the game.
“We thought we were going to officiate the game fairly but the thing changed. We handled it according to what they said. You know that the game is not fair. Football is not fair in Ghana.
“I stopped officiating because of that manipulations from top officials in football. Officiating is not like playing football. When you are a good player, some big clubs can come for you but in officiating it is not like who is performing but whom you know. Your links and your connections will send you far,” he concluded.
Nsor is currently staying with his family in Sunyani.