League Board outlines guidelines for Middle League

Accra, Jan 19, GNA - The Division One League (DOL) Board has outlined rules and guidelines for the next edition of the National Middle League "Fun Play Middle League", while awaiting a court ruling on January 25, before announcing the actual date for the competition.

A statement issued and copied to the GNA Sports by Mr Douglass Djarbeng, Chairman of DOL said the failure of the Board to announce a date for the competition is as a result of a court motion filed by Alhaji Asuma Banda restraining Brong Ahafo United from participating in the Middle League.

Following the motion, BA United will remain on stand-bye, till the case was determined by the court.

According to the statement, firm dates will be announced for the commencement of the league and urged participating clubs to be prepared for kick off at the shortest notice.

The statement said participating clubs will be made to sign an undertaking to abide by the rules of the league before kick off, adding that clubs whose names appears first will be the home team and in the event of clash of jerseys, the away team will be made to change its jerseys.

According to the rules, pre-match conferences will be held at 11:00 am on the day of a match but this may change if the organisers decide otherwise.

Reporting time will be 2:30 pm, with kick off time at 3:00pm while failure to abide by the time slated there will be a fine of 500,000 thousand cedis, which has to be paid before the next match and failure to pay will lead to forfeiture of subsequent matches until payment is made.

A match that is rained off or postponed for any other reason would be played within 24hrs, in conformity with Clause (2) of Article 13 of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) regulations.

It said all protests and appeals would be handled by the GFA Disciplinary and Appeal Committees with dispatch and clubs are to submit protests and appeals if they have any within 48 hours after payment of the requisite fee.

Red cards and yellow cards do not apply in the Middle League while failure to honour matches carries the normal GFA sanctions. The statement said all participating clubs are to appear in the 'Fun Play Ghana Limited' branded jerseys and a flat rate of 10,000 cedis will be charged at the gates with each ticket holder entitled to a lottery ticket.

Proceeds from the gates will be shared equally between the participating clubs after deductions have been made for organisational expenses.