A foreign referee must handle Kotoko vs Hearts clash - Opoku Nti

Kumasi Asante Kotoko legend and former General Manager, Samuel Opoku Nti has suggested to the Ghana Football Association to go in for a foreign referee to handle the crunch game between Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak.

The Ghana Premier League is at its home stretch with Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak tied on the same points with goal difference separating Kotoko and Hearts.

Both teams will clash on match day 31 at the Accra Sports Stadium in a fierce battle that could determine where the Ghana Premier League title ends.

Referees have been lambasted a lot by clubs officials, players and coached a lot this season with a lot of blunders committed.

In the run up to the epic clash, officiating has dominated the game as questions are being raised which referee will handle the match in the wake of all this mistakes.

In an interview with Silver FM, he revealed that officiating has been mixed wit some referees doing very well while others too have been poor.

“As for the referees, some are faring better, some also have question marks hovering around their performances. At times some make genuine mistakes, but it is my prayer that they stick to the laws of the game and give us better officiating,” Opoku Nti told Silver FM.

“Some of the referees have been awarding contentious penalties and they need to be careful. Because we are approaching a big game with both Kotoko and Hearts on the same number of points. So we need to try our best to minimize human errors that could impact the outcome of the game”, he added.

“In my personal opinion, I will prefer a foreign referee. This is not to say our Ghanaian referees are not up to the task, but considering the tensions building up ahead of the Kotoko vs Hearts game.

“If a foreign referee who has no ties with either of the two clubs makes a mistake, people would not read meanings into it like they would for a local referee.

“If the Ghana FA would listen to this advice, then they should go ahead and appoint a foreign referee for that match”, Opoku Nti ended.