Another Physical Fitness Test For Referees

By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.
 

Idrissa Kaba has failed in his attempt to give special dispensation to referees who did not take the FIFA Physical Test, otherwise known as the Cooper Test.

Some top level referees, arguably favored by Kaba, were hoping that the President of the Liberia Football Referees Association (LIFRA) would submit their names to the world football governing body, FIFA, for the new list of international Referees (center) and Assistant Referees (linesmen) despite their failure to take part in the test.

But the Liberia Football Association (LFA) has ordered that another Cooper Test be conducted next month for referees who boycotted the event.

Although they were present at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex on that fateful Sunday, September 17, 2006, the referees being Jallah Korma, Patrick Paye, Joseph Kollie, Sam Korti and Ebenezer Stanley Konah did not take the Cooper Test.

It was expected that by their failure to participate in the process, the referees would be denied the chance of being submitted to FIFA for the 2007 list.

Notwithstanding, after the majority of the Referees Standing Committee of the LFA recommended that referees who boycotted be relieved of their statuses as far as the FIFA list was concerned, LIFRA President Kaba still went on to submit their names amidst disagreements from the refereeing populace in the country.

He also allowed that referees, who failed the test, among them, the Deputy Chief Referee Alphonso Nyanti, remain on the FIFA list. Nyanti covered only 2,645 meters in the 2,700 meters (12 minutes) race.

Though the LFA Executive Committee failed to endorse his plan, Mr. Kaba later called for the removal of the Co-Chairman and Secretary of the Referees Standing Committee, Atty. Sylvester D. Rennie and Daniel C. Forkpa due to the insistence of the two that only referees that took and passed the test should be submitted to FIFA.

This latest development means that those referees, who felt that by avoiding the Cooper Test was an easy passage for them to go on the list for the next term, have been made to think again.