Gruzah to apply brakes on FA
The chairman and founder of King Faisal Football Club, Alhaji Karim Gruzah, would consider hauling the Ghana Football Association (GFA) before the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) if his petition is not adjudicated on before the FA goes to congress.
He said two months after filing a petition challenging the GFA to enforce article 34(1)(L) and 39(8)(b) against Aduana Stars for refusing to comply with the Disciplinary Committee’s (DC) orders to pay GHc5,000 fine for losing a case against Accra Hearts of Oak, they were yet to sit on the case.
“We have waited for so long without any response but now we want to tell the FA to ensure all cases pending before it, including our case, are settled before it goes to congress”, Gruzah stated when he called at the Graphic Sports offices last Friday.
But the chairman of the DC, Kwame Takyi, who spoke to Graphic Sports via telephone yesterday, said the case was only referred to his committee last Friday and promised to work on it before the FA Congress fixed for August 28.
Alhaji Gruzah affirmed that they had a genuine case and any unfavourable decision from the DC would be a travesty of justice and for which ‘’we would advise ourselves on the next line of action.”
Supporting his claims with precedents, the Faisal chairman recounted how they lost a similar case to Tano Bofoakwa in 2007 and the DC ruling in favour of Zaytuna United against Real Tamale United for failing to pay a fine in 2008.
Thus, for not paying the appropriate fine within 14 days for their appeal and stay of execution to the DC, Gruzah argued that King Faisal ‘’are demanding that Aduana Stars forfeit the points of matches played between April 11 and 30 in accordance with the statutes’’.
Meanwhile, the FA’s delay in adjudicating the case invited FIFA’s intervention and a letter jointly signed by the director of legal affairs, Marco Villiger, and head of disciplinary and governance matters, Marc Cavaliero, directed the FA, as the competent entity, to ensure the relevant decision of its regulations were enforced.