Court adjourns Ashantigold vs GFA case to Oct. 20 as GPL remains suspended
An Accra High Court has set Thursday, October 20, 2022 to hear a leave application from Ashantigold to file a supplementary affidavit in their case against the Ghana Premier League (GPL).
Lawyers of Ashantigod on Thursday, October 13, 2022, filed a supplementary affidavit to their interlocutory injunction application on the league.
In their appearance in court, Ghana Football Association lawyers argued that the lawyers of Ashantigold did not follow due process in filing the supplementary affidavit and prayed the court to dismiss it.
Ashantigold lawyers then countered and argued that the GFA’s objection to the filing of the supplementary affidavit was irregular.
The judge, Barbara Tetteh-Charwey, struck out Ashantigold’s supplementary affidavit and then determined that both parties erred, and granted the Miners Monday, October 17, 2022, to apply for leave to file the supplementary affidavit.
She then set Thursday, October 20, 2022, to hear Ashantigold’s application to file the supplementary affidavit.
This means Thursday is for the court to determine whether or not it will grant Ashantigold’s request to file a supplementary affidavit.
The date for the actual hearing of the injunction application could then be set after that.
Friday’s decision means the league remains suspended.
On 29th September, 2022, the Ghana Football Association suspended the league following an injunction application brought against them by Division II club Ashantigold SC.
Ashantigold went to court following their demotion to Ghana’s 3rd tier competition after the club and its officials were found guilty of match manipulation at the end of the 2020/2021 season.
The Miners are contesting the GFA Disciplinary Committee’s decision to demote the club and hand various bans to its officials, a fate suffered by Inter Allies, the other club involved in the said game.
Last month, the GFA subsequently banned the club indefinitely for “continuously dealing with its banned officials”.
Club President, Kwaku Frimpong, and his son Emmanuel Frimpong, who is also the CEO of the club, were handed 10 and 8-year bans respectively from all football-related activities for their involvement in the match-fixing scandal that rocked Ghana football last year.
They filed appeals at the GFA Appeals Committee for and on behalf of the club, which were dismissed, forcing them to resort to the civil court.
In the last game of the 2020/2021 season, Ashantigold beat Inter Allies 7-0 in a game Hashmin Musah scored two deliberate own goals. He later claimed in an interview that his action was necessitated by a tip he received that the game had been fixed.
This prompted a widespread investigation which resulted in bans to over 30 players and officials from the two clubs.