Asante Kotoko have been left licking their wounds following the approval of referee Samuel Sukah’s decision to award Hearts of oak a late penalty in their super clash encounter some few weeks ago.
The Kumasi-based club was sure of a favourable decision from the committee but have been left scratching their heads after the report came out.
Below is the full statement from the club:
The Match Review Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has officially released their decision on events in the Super Clash, that’s the match day eight, 2016/17 Premier League fixture between Kotoko and Hearts on March 22, 2017 at the Accra Sports Stadium.
But in their haste to vindicate Referee Samuel Sukah, whose penalty decision was the subject of controversy in the big match, the Committee did not only overlook other critical points raised by Kotoko, notably the obvious foul on Baba Mahama in the box, that deserved to be punished; they strangely copied Great Olympics, not Kotoko who made the complaint.
How the Committee could make such a mistake in a case that has attracted media attention adds to the suspicion among Kotoko fans that, the Committee did a shoddy job as some fans have even questioned the authenticity of the video that purportedly vindicated the referee.
Referee Sukah, who handled the said match, awarded a penalty in the 82nd minute of the game on grounds that, defender Ahmed Adams used his hand to stop the ball in an attempt to prevent an onslaught by Hearts. Kotoko however rejected the referee’s decision and termed it as wrong in a letter to the FA, insisting that, television replays showed that, Adams did not handle the ball.
But the in their decision, dated March 27, 2017 and signed by Club Licensing Manager, Emmanuel Dasoberi, the Committee claimed that, Referee Sukah was right “As the ball hit the arm of Kotoko’s defender in jersey number 14. The committee further noted that the defender took a risk in diving to head the ball, which hit is elbow”.