GFA presidential race: Afriyie turns to CAS for justice
George Afriyie, the disqualified contender for the presidency of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), is considering taking legal action to halt the forthcoming executive elections in pursuit of justice.
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Mr Afriyie's legal team is in the early stages of initiating proceedings to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Switzerland with the aim of overturning a decision handed down by the GFA Appeals Committee, which upheld an earlier ruling by the election committee disqualifying the football administrator from contesting the FA's top position.
GFA boss unopposed
Consequently, the incumbent GFA President, Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku, stands as the sole candidate for the position at the elective congress, now rescheduled for October 5 in Tamale, Northern Region.
Explaining their next line of action to the Daily Graphic yesterday, Richmond Numbo Saaka, the lawyer representing Mr Afriyie, expressed dissatisfaction with the GFA Appeals Committee's decision and the intention to pursue further legal avenues.
“Their rules require that once this forum makes a decision you may go to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, or a national independent arbitration tribunal.
In our case we’re opting to go to CAS and in the coming days you’d find that we’d have filed the necessary processes before CAS,” Mr Saaka said.
Dissatisfaction
He emphasised that the decision to disqualify Mr Afriyie had no relevance to the issues they had raised, and the statute upon which the committee based its disqualification argument did not apply to elections.
“We are dissatisfied with that decision because the decision, in our opinion, was taken without regard to the case we put before them,” he said, and emphasised that article 32(j) on which his client was disqualified did not apply to election."
Furthermore, Saaka pointed out that Afriyie's disqualification was also a violation of his human rights, a matter they would address when they sent their case to CAS.
“We presented a case to include the breaches of the fundamental human rights of George Afriyie and when it comes to those kind of issues, they are not regulated by the statute of the FA so it’s part of the considerations we are making.”
Mr Saaka expressed the belief that once they reached the independent global sports tribunal in Lausanne, Switzerland, they should be able to halt the election process until their case was adjudicated.
“If we go to CAS we should be able to preserve the status quo as it is now for CAS to make a determination of the matter before we proceed because if they do proceed without a determination being made, then our appeal to CAS is meaningless," he noted.
CAS verdicts are legally binding and are recognised by sports organisations worldwide and they provide a final resolution to disputes, ensuring fairness and integrity in sports.
