The Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association has said that a partnership agreement has been reached in “principle” with the State Transport Company (STC) to transport referees to match venues in the upcoming season.
According to Henry Asante Twum, the GFA met with the leadership of STC on Tuesday, 28th July, 2020 to clear up all outstanding issues regarding the arrangement.
“On Tuesday we met the leadership of STC, led by honourable Nana Akomea and sorted out all the issues so there is a partnership in principle. An MOU is being worked on which will be signed in the coming days and we will outdoor on that particular day.”
This move, according to him, came up after the GFA thought of improving the conditions under which referees in the country work.
“…we realised that, there is the need to make their conditions of service a bit conducive and one of the things that we saw was how they moved from their base to match venues and felt that needed to be attended to. So we met the leadership of STC and they were very cordial.
“In the beginning we were looking for a 100% sponsorship, where they will be the carrier of our referees to match venues every weekend for premier, division 1 and women’s league but after submitting our proposal, STC came back with a counter proposal and said… let’s start with a 50% arrangement.”
He indicated that STC’s proposal was to transport referees “to match venues and every weekend for games with a 50% discount,” for the GFA.
Mr Twum made it clear that, the governing body of football in Ghana “felt half a loaf is better than none” so they “decided to accept” it.
However, he indicated that, the arrangement will be weighed for the impending season and based on that the future of the partnership will be decided.
“At least for the upcoming season so that we can build on that, leverage on that, sharpen the rough edges, iron out a few differences that may come up in the course of the season so that we will build on it for the future.”
