The Ghana Football Association (GFA) match review panel has suspended referee Kenny Padi for the rest of the season after awarding a controversial decision in a league game between Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko at the Baba Yara Stadium.
This comes exactly a week after Hearts filed a protest against referee Kenney Padi for what they described as “unprofessional conduct” during the Super Clash with arch rivals.
In an official statement, the panel said:
“If there was pushing as claimed by the referee, we did not see any movement of the arm from the back to forward.
“Meaning no hand movement and no pulling movement from front to back. The attacker was already throwing himself down in a completely strange way.
“If there was pulling or pushing as claimed by the referee, the attacker should have fallen on the face and not with his back as seen in the video.”
The video also showed quite a number of inconsistencies in his decisions during his officiating of the match, especially after the penalty incident. The referee lost concentration.
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The Panel concluded that, per the video watched, the referee’s defense is in contrast.
Per the video watched the panel holds the view that the referee erred in awarding the penalty. This error changed the outcome of the match.
Therefore, the referee, Joseph Kenny Padi, is suspended for the rest of the season. This includes all GFA organised matches.