Ghanaian referees have suspended their services from all football-related activities in the country following unpaid allowances, according to a letter from the Referees Association of Ghana (RAG).

In an initial statement released last week, the union warned that its members would boycott events if arrears owed them are not paid.

Each referee is entitled to 850 Ghana cedis ($165) per match. The arrears owed are up to 300,000 cedis ($58,000) at matchday nine of the Ghana Special Competition, according to reports.

“We write to inform you that the Referees Association of Ghana after carefully deliberating on your failure to redeem your promise of paying all outstanding officiating fees owed our members before close of April 2019, we decided to call on all our members to suspend handling all football match officiating at all levels and at all league centres from tomorrow, 7th May 2019,” the RAG wrote in a letter to the Normalisation Committee (NC).

“RAG is compelled to take this tough decision because several letters were written drawing your attention to the unpaid officiating allowances and how we find it difficult to travel to match venues due to the unpaid allowances.”Article continues below

The development could affect the next matchday scheduled for Wednesday May 5. However, a solution could emerge before then as the Normalisation Committee offered some hope in their response to the RAG’s letter.

“The NC has notified the Ministry of Youth & Sports about this latest development as it continues to wait for funds contained in the approved budget for the competition including officiating fees for referees, to be released.

“The NC remains confident that the Ministry of Youth and Sports will fulfill its obligations per the budget approved for the NC Special Competition,” the body said.