Time for tact to avert looming danger!
We have a hunch that Ghana’s Premier League, and by extension the Division One League, will be held to ransom for litigious reasons whose aftermath point to dire consequences.
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We do not wish that the league suffers an unnecessary delay next season but from the fillers on the ground this looks potentially the case.
That is why we want to use this medium to appeal to all the factions in this potentially explosive case, which has been brought about by the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), to hold their horses.
We are informed that the case, which is being handled by a reconstituted adjudication body of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), will be disposed of soon, perhaps before next weekend, since the next league season has tentatively been scheduled to kick off on December 18 (see back page)
But before that is the player-registration exercise by the various clubs, fixed for a month earlier on November 14, and therefore, the determination of which clubs qualify to undertake the registration exercise is also subject to the outcome of the pending appeal case.
Without prejudice, we feel worried about the potential outcome of the appeal case in which Tema Youth are in pole position to be reinstated as premier league participants for the incoming season in place of Dreams FC who, by default of the earlier decision of the FA disciplinary body, wrongly took their place in the just-ended league.
We can foresee Dreams, which placed ninth in the premiership and are reported to have started feverish recruitment of new players for the next season, challenge the appeal by going on review as laid down by the FA’s adjudication process or altogether abandon that process and head for the traditional court.
We are only thinking aloud, as Dreams can also decide to let sleeping dogs lie for the FA disciplinary process to work just as Tema Youth obliged them for the league to proceed without hindrance.
But the waters will further be muddied, we dare anticipate, in the calculation that unheralded Real Athletico, which suffered demotion to the lower division by the previous decision, will be deserving of an upward move at the expense of others.
Frankly, we do not know how this case is going to play out eventually as we cannot rule out the potential chaos in its wake.
As it stands now, Tema Youth, Dreams and Real Athletico are the clubs to be directly affected by the outcome of the pending appeal as directed by the CAS, but the ripple effect can be damaging to the Premier and Division One leagues.
