Following the decision of FIFA to ban referee Joseph Odartey Lamptey, it is yet to be determined if the referee will use his option of an appeal to fight the ruling.
The referee may seek the appeal to clear his name after he was accused of ‘match manipulation’ in relation to a match involving South Africa and Senegal in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
The FIFA statement read:
“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to ban the Ghanaian match official Joseph Odartei Lamptey from taking part in any kind of football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) at national and international level for life.
The official was found guilty of breaching art. 69 par. 1 (unlawfully influencing match results) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ qualifying match between South Africa and Senegal on 12 November 2016.”
Process
According to Article 120 of the FIFA rules, referee Lamptey has up to three days to write to the FIFA Appeals Committee to get the process started.
After writing, Lamptey must state his reasons for the appeal withing seven days after the initial three-day period has expired.
Lamptey needs to write to the Ghana Football Association as stated in the FIFA rules so that the FA will send the letter to FIFA.
What did Lamptey do?
The referee awarded a penalty to South Africa in the match when replays showed that the ball hit the thigh of Kalidou Koulibaly.
Senegal went on file a protest to the Confederation of African Football over Lamptey’s performance and he was subsequently banned for three months making him miss the 2017 AFCON tournament.
FIFA’s use of Article 69 which talks about match manipulation hints of an investigation into possible collusion between Lamptey and certain unnamed characters to determine the result of the match.
FIFA stated that the full details of the investigation would soon be provided as the organisation would seek to continue fighting match manipulation.
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By: Nathan Quao/citifmonline.com/Ghana