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Lawyer Amanda Clinton’s petition to FIFA that changed everything

Amanda Clinton Amanda Clinton is a member of the legal team of GFA

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 Source: Kofi Amponsah

On the 29th of June 2018, Lawyer of the GFA, Ms. Amanda Akuokor Clinton who is head of Clinton Consultancy, emailed her 24 page petition to the Chief Member Associations Officer of FIFA, Ms. Joyce Cooke and cc’d all heads of the Member Associations Division, including Mr Veron Mosengo-Omba -Members Association Regional Director of Africa and Caribbean.

Ms. Amanda Akuokor Clinton is 13 years called to the U.K Bar and 10 years called to the Ghana Bar.

The submissions made throughout the document were to allow GFA to have a voice when government went to FIFA and GFA was prevented from going because government did not want to sit at the same table as GFA. The submissions were also to aid FIFA’s governance team to assess what was happening in Ghana football and in return report back to the Chief Member Associations Officer and the President of FIFA.

The 24-page petition was signed by 17 untainted and unaccused members of the FA’s Executive Committee since the ExCo is normally made up of 24 people.

The document contains 143 points of arguments from the GFA stating that government erred in its application to the High Court for the dissolution and that, a dissolution of the FA is improbable given that case law in Ghana shows that the normal procedure of the court is to lift the veil of incorporation to make individual officers accountable; the court is reluctant to wind down a solvent company and outlined the legal and procedural errors on the part of the Ghanaian government.

The 24-page petition written by Lawyer Amanda Akuokor Clinton also outlined the public interest considerations that favoured the GFA as well as the legal, equitable and public policy considerations that favour the GFA when compared to the government’s position.

In summary, Lawyer Amanda Clinton stressed that the remaining members of the FA’s Executive Committee can put in place reforms without the normalisation committee and that GFA leadership was competent to lead restructuring plans, with the recent departure of the President and the Vice President which meant that for the first time in 13 years, the leadership could restructure in a way they were not able to before. Lawyer Amanda Akuokor Clinton in the first instance had been approached by the GFA to restructure.

The petition also explained that government’s application for an injunction to the court contained an error in naming Kwesi Nyantakyi as a director of the FA, which had been registered as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Act 1963.



The application was filed on June 12 but Mr. Nyantakyi resigned on June 8 and was no longer part of the FA.

The petition also stated that those who were seen in the Anas tape allegedly taking part in corrupt acts needed to be determined as being corrupt by a competent court and that had not been done yet.

The document also states that government cannot dissolve the FA on its accord since it does not contribute to the running of the association. The document defines the FA as being “autonomous and not being reliant on government funds or logistical support.”

The petition written by Lawyer Amanda Akuokor Clinton also contends that the government’s argument to wind the FA up based on overriding public interest cannot hold since the FA or its members have not been deemed by a court to have used the entity for wrong doing.

The petition also adds that the government’s plans of dissolution is wrong because if an entity or a company is is found guilty of acting wrongly, dissolution is not the remedy. Rather, the officers behind the company are made to face the law.

The document said that the members of the FA’s Executive Committee who had not been affected by the Exposé were preparing to roll out reforms for the FA.

The document suggested the rest of the Executive Committee should be given 6 months to implement reforms to restore confidence in the FA and in the process, elect a new President and Vice-President since those positions are currently vacant.

Source: Kofi Amponsah
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