Africa-Press – Liberia. Melvin George, the Technical Director for Heaven Eleven, has strongly denied allegations circulating on social media that he attempted to attack fourth official Lovetee Wehyee during his club’s First Division League match against Watanga FC on Thursday, December 11, at the SKD Mini Pitch.
Instead, George insists he was the one attacked and alleges the incident stemmed from serious irregularities surrounding Watanga’s team registration procedures.
“Let me make it very clear: I did not attack the fourth official. I was attacked by the fourth official,” George stated.
Registration Controversy Before Kickoff
According to George, the controversy began before kickoff when Heaven Eleven discovered that Watanga FC was allegedly not properly registered in the electronic system at warm-up time.
George highlighted league regulations requiring a team to be fully registered two hours before kickoff, with the registration system closing thirty minutes before match time.
He argued that because Watanga was not initially registered, Heaven Eleven’s preparations were adversely affected, and Watanga should have forfeited their right to a full warm-up session.
While Watanga later attempted to rectify the issue, George claimed concerns remained about compliance with the rules.
Allegations of Misconduct in Referee Room
George explained that he accompanied his team captain to the referee’s room after the center referee requested his presence during a technical inspection.
“During the inspection, I noticed that the fourth official was calling Watanga players’ names from the electronic system instead of the official matchday sheet,” George said. “That raised serious concerns for me, and I felt it was something I could formally protest.”
As George began recording the process on his phone to document the situation for a formal complaint, he claims the situation escalated violently.
“While I was doing the video, I was attacked. The referee started slapping me, and my phone was cracked in the process,” he alleged.
George also claimed that the Match Commissioner verbally insulted him and threatened to write an unfavorable report, though no formal complaint was ultimately lodged by the commissioner.
Call for LFA Investigation and Consistency
George believes the matter reflects a troubling pattern of inconsistent rule application in Liberian football.
“This is a bad sign for Liberian football,” he said. “Heaven Eleven is on record for losing three points last season to Global Pharma Nike Borough FC for the same registration issue. If we were affected by this rule, then another team should be affected the same way.”
He added that his players were “demoralized” by the situation, which he believes cost his team the game, despite Heaven Eleven’s significant financial and moral investment in Liberian football.
Addressing a video circulated by Watanga’s media department, George dismissed it as misleading. “That video on social media is a cropped video meant to favor Watanga,” he claimed, adding that his full video shows the actual incident.
George reiterated that league regulations mandate the registration system closure 30 minutes before kickoff, after which no team can register or replace players. He alleged that Watanga’s team was registered just four minutes before kickoff, a move he insists should have been impossible under the rules.
“I am calling on the LFA to look into what happened and fix it so this can never be repeated again,” George concluded, urging the Liberia Football Association (LFA) to review the incident carefully and take corrective action to ensure fairness.
Responding to George’s allegations the communication manager of Watanga FC Roland Bandorkai said the video on social media is unedited.
“Nothing in the video is cut, it’s a combined video of two, I started recording from the point where the video begins.” Henry said.
Bandorkai also disagreed with the Heaven Eleven Technical director that Watanga wasn’t registered in time.
“Not true, how will the competition department allow registration of a team four minutes before a game time”
“The head of competition at the LFA could better answer said question” Roland said.
Meanwhile the LFA and the match officials are yet to respond to the accusations made against them.
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