GFA election: George Afriyie’s lawyer explains decision to go to CAS

George Afriyie will become the second presidential aspirant after Wilfred Osei Kwaku, to petition challenge the GFA’s Appeals Committee at CAS following disqualification by the Elections Committee.

Legal adviser to George Afriyie, Esquire Richard Saaka is confident the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will overturn the Appeal’s Committee’s decision to uphold his clients disqualification.

As reported earlier by mynewsgh.com, the former GFA vice president George Afriyie, has decided to challenge the Appeals Committee decision to uphold his disqualification at CAS.

Afriyie took the decision after the Appeals Committee communicated its decision to dismiss his application.

In an interview with Citi FM, Saaka said; ”We are going to go to CAS… and that’s the instructions I have. We are exploring the situation where the court in Ghana will explore the breaches of the rules on natural justice as far as George Afriyie’s candidature to stand for the office of the GFA president is concerned.”

Saaka also disclosed an application to injunct the GFA’s elections at the High Court was also an option.

”That is the first thing we need to note; that it is not only CAS that can deal with this matter. The second thing we need to note is that, in the case we put before the Appeals Committee, we put a case including the breaches of natural justice.”

”The decisions have been that, when it comes to allegations on the breach of rules on natural justice, these contractual rules on agreement between parties such as the statutes of the GFA would not override the decisions or the authorities of the court.”

Afriyie took the decision after the Appeals Committee dismissed his application on the grounds that he failed to secure the required signatures to support his candidature.

The committee said ”The invalidity of any document cannot be cured by reference to article 8(3) of the Elections Regulations. Indeed, if Mr. George Kwasi Afriyie had submitted invalid Tax Clearance Certificate or invalid Police Clearance Certificate, it would have made his nomination invalid.”

This was in response to Afriyie’s claim that the Elections Committee exaggerated its powers on the law of requirements to contest for the GFA Presidency and also misapplied article 8(3) of the GFA Regulations on Elections and article 13(2)(j) of the GFA Statutes 2019, thus, describing the disqualification as erroneous.

Afryie also argued that the the Elections Committee, violated article 54 of the GFA Statutes 2019 when it admitted a sixth member during his vetting, instead of five.

In its decision, the Appeals Committee said the said sixth person is an ”…in-house lawyer of the Ghana Football Association. The lawyer was not part of the Vetting Team and did not ask George Kwasi Afriyie any question. The lawyer provided administrative assistance to the committee.”

The Appeals Committee further asserted that, Afriyie’s claim that the the Committee breached the rule of ”Natural Justice and Fair Hearing” of his candidature when it ”failed, neglected, and refused to apply article 8(3) of the FA regulations on elections,” the Appeals Committee said ”…it is not a case that a Police Clearance Certificate or passport picture had not been included which would have warranted the application of article 8(3) of the Elections Regulations.”

George Afriyie will become the second presidential aspirant after Wilfred Osei Kwaku, to petition challenge the GFA’s Appeals Committee at CAS following disqualification by the Elections Committee. In Kwaku Osei’s case in 2019, CAS upheld the decision of Committee.