GFA Elections: George Afriyie Heads To CAS Over Disqualification
Disqualified Ghana Football Association (GFA0 presidential aspirant, George Afriyie, has asked his lawyers to file an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision of the appeals committee to uphold the ruling of the elections committee disqualifying him from this year’s polls.
JoySports reports that aside from the appeal to be filed at CAS, an application for injunction on the GFA Elections will be filed at the Accra High Court.
Mr Afriyie appealed the decision of the elections committee to disqualify him from the FA presidential elections last week, and it was dismissed by the Appeals Committee on the grounds that he did not meet the requirements to contest for the position of president of the football governing body in Ghana.
It noted that “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 reference Mr Afriyie’s appeal with claim the Elections Committee misdirected itself 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.
Aside from this, the Elections Committee, which is supposed to be five members per article 54 of the GFA Statutes 2019, were six during his vetting, and this, he says, is contrary to the mandated composition of the panel.
However, 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.”
