GFA Referees Manager highlights lack of Offside rule knowledge among assistants

The Referees Manager of the Ghana Football Association, Alex Quartey, has expressed concern over the poor understanding of the offside rule among assistant referees across the various levels of Ghana football.

Match officials have come under heavy criticism throughout the just-ended football season, with several controversial decisions sparking backlash from clubs, including Accra Lions, who have openly questioned the performance of referees and the GFA’s oversight.

Speaking exclusively to Citi Sports, Alex Quartey acknowledged the challenges and revealed that his outfit has identified key areas for improvement, with particular focus on enhancing knowledge and application of the offside rule.

Then when it comes to offside ,our assistant referees haven’t gotten it very well ,with regards to interfering with opponent and gaining advantage .

So these are the areas we have identified and we think that we need to do more work with them on that area .

So like I said, generally they are just small small area that we need to work on and I believe that if they are able to as it were analyze incident quickly with a little bit more of intelligence ,i believe that they will get there.

So 8.5 for me out of 10 is a good score for our referees.

The referee’s department of the Ghana Football Association has released its program for the 2025/26 season, kicking off with the FIFA MA course on July 10

The referees department is set to hold the national written /Fitness Examination for both the northern and southern sector referees from August 8-15,2025.