{"id":11236,"date":"2025-01-22T08:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T08:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=11236"},"modified":"2025-01-22T08:39:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T08:39:18","slug":"kurt-okraku-charges-fifa-referees-to-excel-in-premier-leagues-second-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=11236","title":{"rendered":"Kurt Okraku Charges FIFA Referees to Excel in Premier League’s Second Round"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The President of the Ghana Football Association Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku, has encouraged FIFA referees to rise above challenging second round of the Ghanaian top-flight, while emphasising the need to  to deliver top-notch performances both domestically and internationally.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President made the remark when he presented FIFA badges to 22 referees at a brief but colourful ceremony at the headquarters of the Football Association on Tuesday January 19, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his remarks, President Kurt E.S Okraku expressed his pride in the achievement of the officials, urging them to uphold sporting integrity and professionalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On the whole, every member of this group has done a good job. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Daniel (Laryea) for all that you have done for your good self and for Ghana: And to all of you who have been officiating on the continent, I have not had any negative reportage on your performances,” President Kurt E.S Okraku said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Your performances have justified the trust and the belief CAF and FIFA have in your good selves. I think that you should be encouraged  to do much, much better than you have done so far. In times past, we have had good officials representing our country.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President also urged the officials to step up ahead of the start of the second round of the Premier League and act as proud ambassadors for the Football Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The second half of the season is starting this weekend. I would really, really want all of you to stand up to the test. If our league will be interesting, if our league will be patronised, a lot depends on the team here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I would want all of you to go out as proud and great ambassadors of our FA. To make our Premier League, our Division One League, our WPL, what it’s supposed to be. Per our own history, there are loads of challenges in the second half of the season. Let’s stand up to the test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We trust in your individual and team ability, some of you go in as a team, to deliver good performances. Please, let’s protect our football. Let us protect our football.” he emphasised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are plans to give opportunities to female referees to officiate in the Premier League and President reckons the challenge but insists preparation and dedication to duty will be pivotal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“General Secretary mentioned to me that the ladies must be given opportunity to officiate in not only the Women’s Premier League, not only the Division One, but also in the GPL. It could be very challenging. But when you are prepared, you can stand up to the test. And I hope that all of you will be prepared and will stand up to the test and make our ladies also proud.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President told the Elite referees to understand their status as role models for the Catch Them Young Referees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There are a lot of young ones coming. Some of you are mentors to the young ones. When I read club officials writing about products from the Catch Them Young,  it makes me happy. It makes me happy not because they are doing well, but because I know a lot of you have become mentors to these boys and girls who are following your footsteps. I would encourage you to continue to guide them. I would encourage you to continue to push them to do more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIFA, in a recent statement, unveiled the official list of Ghana referees approved to officiate international matches for the 2025 calendar year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The list comprises ten (10) Center Referees, ten (10) Assistant Referees, one (1) Futsal Referee, one (1) Beach Soccer Referee, and (1) Video Assistant Referee (VAR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, 12 male Referees and Assistants received badges while 8 female Referees and Assistants have been named in the list sent by FIFA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to note that the FIFA badge remains the exclusive property of FIFA and it is for the period of one year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President of the Ghana Football Association Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku, has encouraged FIFA referees to rise above challenging second round of the Ghanaian top-flight, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11238,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236\/revisions\/11238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}