By Mark Baber
February 8 – Football in Ghana, including the Ghana Premier League, First Division and the Ordinary Congress of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has been put on hold as Accra Great Olympics, one of the teams relegated at the end of last season, won an injunction on Monday delaying kick off of the new season until their appeal against relegation is heard.
Accra Great Olympics lost an earlier protest over the use of an unqualified player by one of their opponents but could still be saved from relegation if an Appeals Committee ruling goes their way.
The GFA issued a statement of apology saying: “The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has indefinitely postponed the 24th Ordinary session of Congress which was scheduled to be held at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence (GSCE) in Prampram on Thursday, February 8, 2018.”
“This postponement is as a result of a legal action brought against the Association by Accra Great Olympics Football Club Limited.”
“The GFA has also indefinitely postponed its much-publicised GFA Seminar for the Premier, Division One, Women League clubs, Match Officials and the Media scheduled for Wednesday, February 7 at the GSCE in Prampram.”
“The GFA sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused by this postponement”
As well as delaying the start of the Ghana Premier League and Division One League which had been due this weekend, the injunction has also led to a delay in unveiling new sponsors of the Premier League which was supposed to happen on Monday.
Whilst representatives of clubs went on record to express understanding of Accra Great Olympic’s position, Denali Senaye of the GFA Marketing Committee was less generous, decrying one club deciding “to place its parochial interest ahead of all the other clubs.”
This isn’t the first time court action regularly has disrupted the start of a season as a result of of an internal governance system that needs tightening up and the GFA appeals procedures that need to be speeded up.
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