The Appeals Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has rendered a decision to dismiss the appeal filed by aspirant George Afriyie after his disqualification from the Presidential race.
George Afriyie, a former Vice President of the GFA, was disqualified by the Elections Committee due to a breach of conduct. He subsequently sought a review of the decision from the Appeals Committee.
In a statement issued by the Appeals Committee, it confirmed that it had carefully reviewed the submissions made by both the Elections Committee and the Presidential Aspirant before arriving at its verdict.
The statement clarified, “We note from the written submissions in support of the appeal that Mr. George Kwasi Afriyie is alleging that the Elections Committee was constituted by Six persons instead of five as provided for by the regulations.”
Upon reviewing the video footage of the vetting process, the Committee concluded that the sixth person mentioned by Mr. George Afriyie was the in-house lawyer of the Ghana Football Association and was not part of the vetting team, nor did he pose any questions to Mr. Afriyie during the vetting process.
Furthermore, the Appeals Committee highlighted that, according to the regulations, only five members of the GFA were eligible to support a valid nomination. Out of the five individuals submitted by Mr. George Afriyie, only four were deemed eligible to support his nomination.
The Committee also noted the presence of a sixth Statutory Declaration from an individual who had not endorsed Mr. George Afriyie's nomination, rendering the document irrelevant.
Regarding the basis of George Afriyie's disqualification by the Elections Committee, the Appeals Committee clarified, “The Elections Committee disqualified Mr. George Kwasi Afriyie on the basis that the endorsement from Victory Club Warriors FC was incompetent.”
“The Elections Committee established from the Regulations of Victory Club FC as well as the records of the GFA that Mr. Jeffery Asare is not a Director of the Club in its Regulations and is also not an authorized signatory as officially provided to the Ghana Football Association by the Club,” the statement added.
Reporting by Francis Ofori . Editing by Mariam Aminu.