The GFA Disciplinary Committee has fined KFC Samosa GH¢3,000 in respect of their GN Bank Division One League match against Elmina Sharks played at the Wesley Park on March 15, 2015.

In the said match, KFC Samosa were for failing to control their supporters when they went into the inner perimeter without authorization in violation of Articles 35(2) and 35(3)(c) of the GFA General Regulations and Article 58 of the Disciplinary Code in respect of this match.

They were further charged for failing to control their supporters when they rushed to the field and attacked, heckled, threw stones and water at the referees and verbally abused and humiliated the match officials until they were rescued in violation of Articles 35(2) and 35(3)(c) of the GFA General Regulations and Article 58 of the Disciplinary Code in respect of this match.

DEFENCE KFC Samosa in its Statement of Defence, signed by its Chairman, Samuel Owusu, the club pleaded not guilty to the charge and requested for a Personal Hearing to defend the charges against the club. KFC Samosa was therefore invited to the Disciplinary Committee but failed or refused to appear before the Committee to defend the charge.

The Invitation Letter clearly stated that the Committee will go ahead to adjudicate the matter if the recipient fail or refuse to respond to the charge.

PROCEEDINGS AND FINDINGS The Committee examined the depositions in the Charge Sheet and the reports of the match officials of the said match.

The Committee has established as a fact that the Invitation Letter was sent to KFC Samosa and was more importantly for our purposes also published on the official website of the Ghana Football Association (www.ghanafa.org) which has become one of the official mode of communication for the GFA since the GFA Congress gave the mode its approval on December 30, 2014.

It is the view of the Committee that there is a proof that Article 37(19) of the General Regulations was complied with, and therefore KFC Samosa have no excuse whatsoever for their failure to respond to the charges and the invitation to the GFA Disciplinary Committee.

Article 37(19) “All official correspondence including but not limited to daily and weekly information updates, fines, debts, costs, notices, invitations, decisions, communiqués and any other information of the Association, its bodies, its Organs, its committees or the Secretariat shall be deemed to have been duly served on a club, its officers, players, supporters, agents, representatives or whoever described, if the service of the said correspondence is communicated to the Club or the Club Secretary or the Club owner, or the Club Representatives submitted to the GFA through its fax, e-mail address, postal address, or delivery of a hard copy thereof or is made or published through the GFA newspaper or newsletter or other national newspapers, the GFA website or announced through any radio station or television station or posted on the GFA notice board”.

The Committee will therefore proceed to deal with the matter fairly with regards to the evidence before it.

On the first charge of the supporters entering into the inner perimeter without invitation or authorisation, the Committee is satisfied with the facts in the match officials report and holds that behaviour is a clear violation of the regulations since only club officials on the team sheet are expected to be in the inner perimeter.

On the charge of the behaviour of the club’s supporters after the match which led to amongst others, the unnecessary and unfortunate humiliation of a match official (their prevention of the match official from exiting the match venue which would have enabled them attend to other personal activities), a number of regulations of the GFA are relevant to this matter.

The first is Article 35(2) of the General Regulations of the GFA which provides as follows. Article 35(2) “Misconduct towards a match official away from the field of play where that misconduct can be related or traced to a match shall be dealt with as if it has been committed on the field of play”.

Also, Article 35(1)(b) and 35(3)(c) of the General Regulations provide as follows: Article 35(3)(b) ”Throwing of sachet water, plastic bottles and other object onto the field of play shall attract the sanctions in paragraph 3(a) above”.

Article 35(3)(c) ”Using abusive language against match officials before and after matches which did not attract expulsion shall be sanctioned as in paragraph 3(a) above”.

In this respect, the Committee was also mindful of Article 35(4) which states that: Article 35(4) “The Association shall hold clubs responsible for the misconduct of their supporters before, during and after a match”.

The Committee accepts the report of the referee as the statement of the undisputed facts of the incidents that occurred on that faithful day.

The Disciplinary Committee was satisfied that the conduct of the supporters in preventing the match officials from leaving the match venue for a number of minutes in an attempt to beat them amidst insults and threatening words which prompted the police personnel on duty to shield them amounts to a misconduct and a breach of the GFA Regulations and shall accordingly sanction KFC Samosa in this respect.

It is worth stating once again that there are structures within the Ghana Football Association which deal with complaints against any alleged mishandling of a match by a match official (A club may send a Complaint to the Match Review Committee established under Article 59(3) of the GFA Statutes) or against a misconduct of a match official (a club may send a Complaint to the GFA Prosecutor appointed under Article 39 of the GFA Statutes s or to the Referee Committee under Article 64 which has the duty to recommend the suspension or removal from the referees list referees found to be incompetent or guilty of serious misconduct per Article 64(6) of the GFA Statutes).

Indeed, holding match officials hostage or preventing them from exiting the match venue is not one of the acceptable ways allowed under the regulations.

DECISIONS