Wilfred Kwaku Osei (Palmer) accepts CAS verdict

Tema Youth owner, Wilfred Kwaku Osei, has accepted the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to dismiss his case against the Ghana Football Association (GFA).

Known in football circles as Palmer, the football administrator petitioned the CAS over his disqualification by the GFA Normalisation Committee in October 2019 from contesting last year’s presidential elections. On Wednesday, CAF dismissed his appeal, bringing an end to 11 months of legal tussle.

The CAS verdict ratified the decision by the FA's Normalisation Committee/Elections Committee’s to disqualify Palmer from contesting last October polls.

In a statement, the former GFA Executive Committee member said: “Even though I have issues against the main grounds for the delivery of the final verdict, I have no other alternative than to accept it in good faith and move on in life. At the end of the day, it is a victory for Ghana football.”

“It is my prayer that we all continue to pool our resources to move Ghana Football forward to reach the desired heights that we all wish for,” the statement added

Palmer was disqualified on his failure to pay a mandatory 10 per cent fee to the GFA for the transfer of his player, Joseph Paintsil to Belgian side KRC Genk.

The other reason for the Tema Youth president's disqualification was his refusal to apologise to the association’s Ethics Committee over comments he made on public radio that, Ghana failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup due to government’s decision to withdraw indemnity or unclassified payments from the FA budget.

Palmer deemed the decision to disqualify him from the elections as “unfair”, hence dragged the association to the global sports tribunal in Switzerland.