Adansiman drag GFA to CAF-FIFA

Obuasi Adansiman Sporting club has lodged a protest against the Ghana Football Association (GFA) with the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) and the Africa Football Confederation (CAF) seeking redress on a disciplinary case involving Berekum Arsenals.

A report by the Times Sports said a letter of petition dated 5 February and signed by Mr K. Barimah Acheampong, Secretary of the club urged the two august soccer bodies to intervene in the matter to forestall a possible disruption of the GFA’s programme. Adansiman’s grounds of petition was that Arsenals fielded an unqualified player in the person of George Brown during a premier league match last season; and they duly protested.

The GFA Explained that there was a problem on the same player (George Brown) brought up by another club but due to some technicalities, the FA needed a reversal of an earlier decision to be able to declare the player unqualified. Subsequently, the decision was reversed proving that George Brown was disqualified implying that Adansiman should be beneficiaries of the decision and awarded the points at stake.

However, Adansiman claimed that they have been denied the legitimate points after several appeals, through the appropriate quarters of the FA and described the situation as “dishonesty to justice.” “This is an absurd situation and the decision of the committee outrageous and we are therefore, sending this petition because of the awareness that FIFA and CAF do not approve of clubs sending their local association under them to court;” the complaint added.

Adansiman’s petition also urged the highest football authorities in Africa and the world to appropriately intervene since they would be left with no option but to advice themselves in the interest of fairness and justice. “We think this is where sympathizers of clubs are by circumstances beyond their control forced to bring justice to bear on the football authorities by instituting legal actions against them.”

The Obuasi Club, which has since been relegated to the Division One League (DOL), noted that even though a petition has been sent to the GFA executive council, no attention has been given to the plea.

Meanwhile, the Executive Council of the GFA have denied having received a petition from Adansiman Football Club. Alhaji Y.A. Ibrahim, Chairman of the Executive Council observed that, Adansiman’s petition might have been discussed during their meeting last week should they have been given a copy of it.

It would be recalled that the matter of the player (George Brown) had earlier come before the Disciplinary Committee in the case of Asante Kotoko versus Berekum Arsenals. The Committee in its ruling stated that it had no jurisdiction to overrule the Player Status Committee’s decision declaring George Brown a floating player.

Consequently, the Committee held that George Brown was not an unqualified player in which Adansiman’s protest was dismissed on similar grounds and filed an appeal on 29 October 2001. Kotoko however, appealed against the decision of the Disciplinary Committee and the Appeals Committee held that George Brown was on unqualified player and the Porcupine Warriors were awarded three points and three goals in accordance with the rules. It is based on these developments that Adansiman is calling for a second look at the decision taken against them.

However, when the GFA was contacted, the General Secretary, Mr Kofi Nsiah disclosed that in as much as they are aware of the action, Adansiman adopted the wrong procedure of lodging a protest with the two bodies. He explained that Adansiman should have sent the letter through the GFA onward and that the GFA would inform Adansiman of the proper procedures for lodging such protests.