GFA assures Olympics of fair deal

The Chairman of the Ghana Football Association Executive Council, Mr. Yussif Adam Ibrahim, has said that the GFA was pursuing action on the request for arbitration made by Accra Great Olympics in connection with the transfer of three of their players to Kumasi Asante Kotoko three seasons ago.

He told the GNA Sports that he has initiated a process, which would ensure fairness to the parties involved in the litigation and hoped the matter would be resolved to the satisfaction of both Olympics and Kotoko.

Accra Great Olympics had demanded an arbitration to thrash out the issue about the transfer of three of their former players, Aziz Ansah, Joe Louis and Fuseini Adams to Kotoko by the former administrations of the two clubs.

Olympics claim Kotoko has not paid anything on the three players, whose collective value they put at 390 million cedis and many letters they had written to the former administration of the Kumasi club yielded no positive results.

Mr Ibrahim said because of the delicate nature of arbitration cases, such matters are referred to the legal and status committees, which would conduct preliminary investigations to establish the merits and demerits of the case before actual deliberations get underway.

He said it is the responsibility of the committees to establish the basis for arbitration, adding that sometimes there would not even be the need for arbitration if the feuding parties understand each other during the preliminary investigation and decide on acceptable terms of settlement.

The executive council chairman advised the management of Olympics to continue to be patient, as "the fundamentals of the issue must be sorted out before a hearing is convened," adding that he received notification on the request of Olympics only about three weeks ago.

He said Olympics must allay their fears about justice being perverted and should have confidence in the system because the matter would not be prejudged in favour Kotoko but rather, a thorough appraisal would be made to ensure that the truth prevails.

Accra Great Olympics had, in a letter dated July 12, 2002 written to the GFA requesting for arbitration between them and Kotoko in respect of the transfer of the three players by Ade Coker, former chairman of the club, during the Herbert Mensah administration.

Despite a reply from the GFA dated September 3 and signed by Mr. Kofi Nsiah, General Secretary, that their letter was receiving attention, no action was taken and the Executive Council whose responsibility it is to convene arbitrations was not notified until three weeks ago, over nine months since the request was made.