Legal cases threaten GPL start date

The Ghana Football Association’s bid to start the Ghana Premier League on February 11 could suffer a jolt as the planned smooth take-off is threatened by some legal tussles.

The Ghana Football Association announced that the 2017/18 league season would start from Saturday February 11, 2018.

Many clubs have started their preseason training while others are participating in the ongoing GHALCA G8 tournament in Cape Coast and Kumasi respectively.

As Techiman City President Charles Kwadwo Ntim set for a protest at Court of Arbitration of Sports after the GFA legal system threw away his team’s case against the 2017 champions of the national division one zone and newly promoted GPL club Eleven Wonders over alleged use of an unqualified player during a derby match.

Meanwhile the general manager of newly promoted Eleven Wonders, Takyi Arhin has also threatened to sabotage the commencement of the 2017/2018 Ghana Premier League season should Techiman City win the appeal at CAS to remove Wonders and the appellant handed a Premier League spot instead.

In his analysis, sports journalist Saddick Adams said the issues surrounding the league are huge and believes will go a long way to affect the tentative date slated for the start of the league.

“The fact is that there is a case at CAS, the FA failed to tender in whatever was supposed to be done and so CAF will rule and when their ruling comes down it is binding on the association.

“I don’t know when the case will be called but it will be very difficult for the FA to follow the calendar; and for that 11 February commencement date of the league I don’t think the league will come on as scheduled.

“But the main problem has got to do with judicial issues with Great Olympics, Techiman City and a couple of them in the lower division. It will be very difficult for the league to commence on the 11th of February,” Saddick Adams explained.