June 7, 2021
By: Mohamed Abu Conteh
Sierra Leone Football Electoral Committee Chairman, Oluniyi Robbin Coker has on the 3rd May 2021 informed Journalists about the conduct of the Elective Congress that is set to take place in Makeni this Weekend’s in the Northern part Sierra Leone.
He made it clear that if there is any evidence of Government interference in the electioneering process they as Committee will have no options but to report the matter to FIFA.
He affirmed that as a committee their mandate is to conduct free and fair elections for Sierra Leone Football Association and seized the opportunity to call on all and sundry to put trust in the process.
He acknowledged receipt of a Letter from National Sport Authority to caution them that if anything goes wrong the Authority will hold them responsible.
He said they are not afraid of anybody as long as they are doing the right thing as expected of a body responsible for sports in the Country.
Following his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision of the SLFA Ethics Board declaring him ineligible to contest in the upcoming SLFA Elective Congress 2021 pursuant to Article 17(1) and (2) of the SLFA Ethics Code and Regulations 2020 and Article 26(2) of the FIFA Code of Ethics, Rodney Michael has been declared eligible as CAS partially overturned the decision of the Ethics Board. CAS is yet to provide the justification for such decision.
However, CAS maintained the fines and penalties imposed on Rodney Michael by the SLFA Ethics Board for taking the Sierra Leone FA to a state court in 2014 instead referring the dispute to arbitration structure is in contravention of Article 13(f) of the SLFA Statutes 2020.
The referenced provision states that members are obliged “To adopt a statutory provision specifying that any dispute requiring arbitration involving itself or one of its members and relating to the statutes, regulations, directives and decision of FIFA, CAF, SLFA and member organization or association or the leagues shall come and solely under the jurisdiction of an arbitration tribunal set up for this purpose and that recourse to ordinary courts is prohibited”.
In a Press Release CAS states that the football Association should pay damage to Rodney Michael which is 32 million dollars.
In another development, the SLFA Ethics Board has declared Christian Dauda Thompson ineligible to contest in the SLFA Elective Congress scheduled for the 4 and 5 June 2021 “on the basis of the fact that he made untrue statement to the Board in relation to his residency”.