A referee in the Ghana Women’s Premier League has been banned for failing to award what the Ghana Football Association’s Review Panel described as an “obvious penalty” during a league game.
In the game between Soccer Intellectuals and Samartex FC, Mortey Mawuli was found to have failed to award Intellectuals a penalty even though their striker was clearly fouled by Samartex’s goalkeeper in the 10th minute.
The GFA’s Review Panel said that “the attacker number 14 of Soccer Intellectuals had an obvious goal-scoring opportunity but the goalkeeper of Samartex in an attempt to play the ball, kicked the leg of the attacker.”
“Hence clear foul was committed in the penalty area.”
The referee admitted that the striker went down in the box as a result of the referee’s challenge but argued that the forward initiated the contact.
“The referee was of the view that the attacker stretched his leg to meet the goalkeeper hence the fall of the attacker,” the Review Panel said.
“However, he agreed that the attacker had advantage of the ball and fell as a result of the goalkeeper’s clash.”
Despite Mortey Mawuli’s explanation, the Panel ruled that “the decision changed the result of the match” and handed him an eight-match ban as a result.
The assistant referee, Emmanuel Opoku was also handed a four-match suspension for flagging for a goal-kick instead of a penalty.
