Techiman City review application dismissed

Techiman City Football Club’s review application against the GFA Appeals Committee ruling delivered on Friday 27th November, 2015 has been dismissed.

Below is the full ruling on the review application by Techiman City Football Club:

PANELISTS

1. EMMANUEL ANNAN - CHAIRMAN

2. ALHAJI FAROUCK SEIDU – VICE CHAIRMAN

3. OWUSU ANSAH AWERE – MEMBER

4. CLAUDE OPPON - MEMBER

5. DIVINE SUNU - MEMBER

6. KWAME TAKYI - MEMBER

7. BAFFOUR AKOTO - MEMBER

8. DANIEL ODURO – SECRETARY

This is an application by Techiman City Football Club invoking the review jurisdiction of the Appeals Committee of the GFA to review its decision dated 27/11/15.

The grounds for the review were stated as follows:

• Errors of law and lack of jurisdiction

• Failure to refer to and apply GFA Regulations and Statutes;

• Procedural flaws and abuse of GFA Regulations and Statutes; and

• Bad precedence

Of all the grounds, the one that affects the panel of the Committee and its lack of jurisdiction shall be addressed first because if indeed the panel was improperly constituted then a fortiori it would not have the required jurisdiction to make the decision complained of and in that case there will be no need to go into the other grounds of the review.

According to the applicant, the matter referred to the Committee by the Ethics Committee was in a form of a review application and therefore the review panel of seven (7) members rather than the appeal panel of five (5) members should have sat on the matter. It is the applicant’s case that the said appeal panel made up of 5 members including the Chairman or Vice-Chairman lacked the requisite jurisdiction and therefore its decision must be quashed by this committee.

Article 42.1 of the GFA Statutes states “The Appeals Committee shall be constituted by ten (10) members, five (5) of whom shall be empanelled to hear a given case. Seven (7) members shall be empanelled from the ten (10) to hear all applications for review.”

The article is self-explanatory to the effect that 5 members form a quorum to hear any given case while 7 members are empanelled to hear applications for review. How then can applicant invoke the review jurisdiction of the Appeals Committee?

Article 42.7 of the GFA Statutes is the answer. It says “The decision of the Appeals Committee in any matter shall be final provided that the Appeals Committee shall have power to review its own decision either suo motu or on an application by an aggrieved party”. It is therefore only under these two circumstances that the review jurisdiction of the Appeals Committee can be properly invoked (1) by an aggrieved applicant and (2) by the committee itself suo motu.

In the instant case the matter was referred to the Appeals Committee by the Ethics Committee to have a second look at it. In our view, that referral (rightly or wrongly)did not invoke the review jurisdiction of the Appeals Committee as envisaged by article 42.7 of the GFA Statutes. The ordinary panel of 5 members that heard the matter was right and the said panel could not be said to lack the requisite jurisdiction.

We have looked at the other grounds of the application for review and there is no exceptional circumstance why the said decision of the Appeals Committee dates 27/11/15 should be reviewed. The application is therefore dismissed.

DATED IN ACCRA THIS 14TH DAY OF DECEMBER, 2015