Kurt E.S Okraku, President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has reaffirmed the FA’s commitment to improve the standard of officiating across all competitions in the country.

According to the President, they had been engaging the Referees Association of Ghana (RAG) in outlining the right system of checks and balances to help enhance their capacity and also improve performance.

Mr Okraku speaking at a press briefing said an amount of GH¢300,000.00 has been paid to RAG as first tranche of payment of debts owed the association, with regards to officiating fees.

He said the FA was fully committed to clearing all outstanding debt.

“We are almost done with our transport strategy to ensure that the lives of our referees are comfortable than they use to be.

“Soon we shall be announcing a relationship with the State Transport Corporation and they would be a key partner in ensuring that referees for the GPL, Division One and Women’s Premier League have access to easy transport,” he said.

He added that there were discussions with hotels as partners, to take care of the accommodation and feeding of referees during matches.

Mr Okraku announced that they have ordered for new communications gadgets to be used by referees in the Ghana Premier League (GPL) and would soon be available to all referees, which formed part of the grand attempt to improve officiating.

The FA also disclosed that his outfit will soon roll out e-ticketing strategies to help facilitate the purchase of match tickets in the Ghana Premier League (GPL).

He said the phenomenon of queuing to buy match tickets across match centers had become a worrying trend, which had affected the patronage of games with certain individuals taking advantage of the loopholes to make money for themselves.

“I didn’t enjoy seeing lots of our countrymen waking up in the morning to queue at the Accra Sports Stadium in their quest to buy tickets and that side alone is very worrying.