Banned Ghanaian referee loses appeal

FIFA has dismissed the appeal of controversial Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey to overturn the decision of the Disciplinary Committee to hand him a lifetime ban.

The Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey was handed a life ban by FIFA for manipulating the 2018 World Cup qualifier between the Bafana Bafana of South Africa and the Terenga Lions of Senegal played in November last year.

The Ghanaian match official awarded a dubious penalty in the 43rd minute to the home side to break the deadlock.

The incident which was clearly not a penalty as many video angles showed landed the controversial Ghanaian referee into trouble as he was handed a three months ban by CAF.

Just as J.O. Lamptey was on the verge of completing serving his ban, FIFA slapped him with a hefty life time decision which will see him aborting his dreams of officiating at the highest level of football, the World Cup.

A statement released by FIFA on their official website 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.’

Senegal petitioned CAF and copied FIFA insisting the referee manipulated the game for the home side and following FIFA’s investigation into the incident, the Ghanaian official’s career was brought to an abrupt end.

Joseph Lamptey appealed the decision of the world football governing body but after further investigations, the Appeals Committee of FIFA has upheld the decision to ban him for life.

Lamptey, who has been at the center of many controversial decisions that have determined the fate of many clubs both locally and internationally will no more be seen closer to any football event, be it local or international.