Ghanaian assistant referee Patrick Papala banned for one year

Ghanaian FIFA badge referee, Patrick Papala has been slapped with a one-year ban by the match review panel of the Ghana Football Association (GFA). The FIFA assistant referee who determined Accra Hearts of Oak SC Premier league game against Real Tamale United FC with a 2-1 scoreline after denying Hearts of Oak SC an obvious clean goal by flagging offside has been banned.

The match day 33 encounter of the 2022-23 season clash was played at the Accra Sports Stadium.

According to the decision of the match review panel of the Ghana Football Association, the decision by Assistant Referee-1 (Patrick Papala) of the said game to deny Hearts of Oak the equalizer from Yaw Amankwah Baafi in the 90th minute was absolutely a wrong call on his part since upon a careful review of the match, the Hearts player WAS NOT IN AN OFFSIDE position and therefore the goal should have been made to stand.

The defense from Mr. Papala that the Hearts player was in an offside position was overruled by the panel after a careful review of the said incident and to serve as a strong deterrent to other match officials, the review panel has ruled that “Per the video watched, the panel did not see the scorer of the goal in an offside position.

The panel did not also see the instinctive re-action argument of the defender that he, Patrick Papala eluded to by trying to use as his defence”.

It said the Hearts player was not in an offside position at the time the kick was taken.

They also ruled that “FIFA Assistant Referee-1 Patrick Papala is hereby suspended for one-year (ie the 2023-2024 football season) effective from the date of this communication.

The review panel also served a big caution to the centre Referee of the day, Foster Bastiours stressing that “Foster Bastiours as the main referee failed to take responsibility when he saw that the goal scorer was not in an offside position and allowed his assistant to dictate to him. He is therefore warned to learn to take responsibility next time when he was sure that his decision was correct”.

This decision from the match review panel of the Football Association has certainly vindicated Accra Hearts of Oak and even though valuable points from the game have been lost, it is refreshing to know that the legal system has applied the appropriate rules to continue to bring sanity in our game as we all thrive to bring back the love of the game.