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Kurt Okraku — CEO, Dreams FC

Can we ever have a litigation-free season?

Once again, our league season appears to be stalled. And nobody can confidently predict when exactly the next season will begin. Indeed, but for an act of God, the season ended would not have taken place, because there was litigation at the end of the previous season.

Anytime there is this kind of lull and uncertainty about our football league, it takes some joy and happiness from the lives of many followers and stakeholders of the game. And this does not exclude us referees. While we wait, we continue to train to keep our form.

The question, therefore, is: how and when can we find an antidote to this recurring problem? When and how can we stop the litigation? In other words, one may ask, what do we do to stop the litigation?

 

 Football is a game of passion and every team, weak or strong, good or bad, wants to win. In this particular case, it is not a case of no team wanting to be relegated, especially if it feels that it could hang on a small issue. It is a case of which teams deserve to be promoted.

To my mind, we can only avoid the constant litigation and rancour only if and when we all decide to be truthful and objective.

As a human institution, there would be disagreements and disputes in our dealings with each other. But these can be reduced when as individuals we decide to be truthful and honest.

We must avoid underhand dealings and dishonest behaviours and cheating. Nobody enjoys being cheated.

As an institution, the GFA has put in place various organs to arbitrate disputes and disagreements that occur between clubs and persons working within the football association.

 But these organs, like the Disciplinary Committees, also depend on documents and briefs from the football association. Formation from such documents must also be truthful, factual with up-to-date evidence.

For, if and when the judicial or disciplinary organs are not provided with the correct facts of a case in disrepute, they cannot arrive at honest and good judgements and conclusions.

All these place a heavy burden on the leaders of the football association. But it is important for the leaders themselves to be seen to be above board.

Above board means being honest, upright, objective and fair in judgements. They should also avoid the display of favouritism and discrimination in their dealings and decisions making.

Like any other organisation, the GFA has laid down rules and regulations that help to govern and administer its affairs.

To avoid the kind of litigations that affect the smooth and early start of our football season, it should be in the interest of everybody if these rules and regulations are applied promptly, firmly and fairly.

There are occasions when some affected people compare their cases and problems to previously determined ones. Such people naturally feel peeved and unsatisfied when it appears that they are being treated differently. For what was good for club A, should be good for Club Z.

But perhaps one of the most important ways to avoid wasting time and bitter litigations, is to institute and maintain a top-level Alternative Arbitration body that comprises members of the GFA’s Emergency Committee to quickly get potential litigants into a boardroom type of meeting to try to solve potentially explosive problems.

An example is the near explosive case between Hearts of Oak and Kotoko. Fact is, whether we accept it or like it, Kotoko and Hearts are the colossus or giants of the nation’s football.

 Nobody has decreed them to be so. Neither have they been installed as such. But, as far as I am concerned, they have over the year established themselves as such. My conclusion is drawn by their following and their gate fee proceeds.

Every team in the country gets some financial relief after hosting either Kotoko or Hearts in a home match. Both of them are just two teams like any other two teams and they should go by the same rules and regulations.

But whenever there is an issue like the one that currently appears unresolved, they should be given an extra attention and treatment.

There may be about 196 countries in the world, but we know and accept that the United States of America and Russia and perhaps, Germany cannot be equated to The Gambia and, South Sudan.

 That is the basis of my point. When a space is designated as ‘NO PARKING’ someone still parks there.

Fact is, litigations at the end of our football seasons are becoming part and parcel of our seasons and the earlier we do something positive to end them the better it would be for everybody, including us referees.

Happy New Year to all football people, including the litigants.

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