Premier League set for further delay – As GFA, Oly battle in court

Patrons and stakeholders who were seeking for an immediate court ruling to ensure a quick return of the Ghana Premier League would have to endure another week after an Accra High Court adjourned hearing of the interlocutory injunction suit filed by Accra Great Olympics Club Limited against the Ghana Football Association to February 21.
An aggrieved Olympics management put paid to the GFA’s plans to start the 2017/18 edition of the Ghana Premier League on February 10 when it placed an interlocutory injunction on the league until all pending judicial cases were cleared.

The unexpected suit also resulted in the indefinite postponement of the 24th GFA Ordinary Congress scheduled for the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence (GSCE) at Prampram on February 8.

However, fans who were hoping for a quick adjudication of the suit got disappointed after Justice Anthony Yeboah adjourned hearing of the case to February 21 to allow both parties sufficient time to file their responses and other supplementary documents.

At yesterday’s hearing at the Human Rights Court Two in Accra, Justice Yeboah took into account a plea by the counsel for Olympics, Kwesi Austin, that he was yet to study and respond to the response by the GFA counsel, Thaddaeus Sory, because he only received it late last Monday.

Before the end of the sitting which lasted less than 30 minutes, Justice Yeboah directed the counsels for both parties to ensure that their written responses and any other supplementary documents were filed before Friday, February 16.

The Judge also advised the counsels to supply him with relevant legislation from the GFA statutes supporting their arguments before adjourning the suit.

The plaintiff and respondents of the suit were identified in court as Fadi Fattal, a Shareholder of Olympics and a Director; Isaac Addo, GFA General Secretary, respectively.

Although Mr Sory declined to comment after the hearing, the GFA president, Kwesi Nyantakyi, who also appeared in court, said he was committed to the court process and as such would not discuss merits of the case outside court.

He said he would endeavour to be present at all the hearings, except when he was outside the country on an international assignment.

Source: Graphic