The GFA Disciplinary Committee has dismissed coach Hans Van der-Pluym’s protest for an enforcement of a decision of the Player Status Committee on outstanding contractual claims made against Berekum Chelsea.
This decision was taken after the Committee received a letter from the Petitioner calling for a withdrawal of Protest.
SUMMARY OF THE FACTS The Petitioner protested against the Respondent for failing to fulfill the Decision of the Players Status Committee dated September 26, 2014 which requested Berekum Chelsea to pay the Petitioner an amount of GHc61,060 representing his outstanding signing-on fee, six months weekly allowance, four months’ salary and recurrent expenditure from April to June, 2014 and also an amount of US$154,500.
The Petitioner in a letter dated January 27, 2015 requested the GFA to evoke parts of Article 63 of the GFA Disciplinary Code to punish the Respondent refusal to obey the said Decision. Subsequently, on February 2, 2015, the General Secretary in response, wrote to the Respondent to pay the said amounts within fourteen (14) days failing which Berekum Chelsea FC shall be sanctioned under Article 63(1)(c) of the GFA Disciplinary Code.
In a reply letter dated February 15, 2015, the Respondent expressed their surprised at the ultimatum letter and stated that the matter is before the Disciplinary Committee. The matter was therefore referred to this Committee for adjudication prompting the Committee to invite the parties to appear before it.
FINDINGS AND GROUNDS OF THE DECISION At the hearing, while the representative of the Petitioner, Desmond Asiedu stated that the Respondent did not file a Statement of Defence, the Respondent prompted the Committed it had long reached a settlement agreement with the Petitioner. The Committee therefore requested the Petitioner to furnish the Committee with all the previous correspondence and agreements within a week to enable the Committee to deliver its decision.
It was in the process of writing the decision that the Committee received a letter from the Petitioner headed Withdrawal of Protest. The Petitioner by the letter stated that: “I refer to the above-mentioned subject and respectfully wish to withdraw same in the interim and represent whenever necessary”.
It is trite law that once a Petitioner withdraws his Petition a Committee must grant the wish of the Petitioner. What the Petitioner would not be allowed to do is to use the Committee at the time and moments he wishes. The Committee shall therefore ignore the interim nature of the Petitioner’s withdrawal and deny him the opportunity from bringing future petitions on these same facts.
DECISION The Committee therefore, makes the following decisions: 1. That the Protest brought by Hans Van der-Pluym against Berekum Chelsea before the Disciplinary Committee is hereby dismissed as withdrawn in accordance with Article 37(16) of the General Regulations of the GFA.
2. That Hans Van der-Pluym is hereby estopped from bringing a Protest before the Disciplinary Committee on same facts against the same party in future.
3. That should any party be dissatisfied with or aggrieved by this Decision, the party has within three (3) days of being notified of this Ruling to appeal to the Appeals Committee of the Ghana Football Association (See Article 37(11) of the General Regulations of the GFA).