Sierra Leone News: High Court Slams Injunction on Regional Playoff
By Desmond Tunde Coker
The High Court in Freetown has on Tuesday September 24, 2019, slammed an injunction on the current Sierra Leone Premier League playoffs taking place in the northern region. This means that the final rounds of the playoff that is supposed to start today WednesdaySeptember 25, will not be played till the court rules otherwise.
The injunction came following a case brought to the high court by some members of the Sierra Leone Football Association who thought it fit that the SLFA did not have the right to organize a playoff for just a region forgetting about other regions.
The FA in July affirmed its decision to add two more teams to the country’s top tier league, to make it a 16-team league. As part of their decision, they said the teams would be taken from the northern region of the country only, but this brought about other region condemning the statement by the SLFA.
According to the general secretary of the Sierra Leone Football Association, Christopher Kamara, the decision was based on the need to get a total inclusion of teams from the Northern region into the national league.
The injunction means teams from the north will have to wait to see if Justice Komba Komanda rules otherwise.
The preliminaries of the playoff in the north have since been enfolded up over the weekend. A total of 10 teams are supposed to be in Makeni and Port Loko for the final rounds of the qualifiers with the plan being for two of them to be in the premier league. Tuesday’s decision comes as a blow to that process.
Treasurer of the Western Area Football Association, Augustine Kambo is one of four members who filed for this injunction. He said their case was about getting fair treatment for teams that are already in queue to get to the Premier League.
“”We are satisfied with today’s ruling. This whole issue is about balance. We are not against the north; the north should be represented in the premier league and we are not against that. But we want a balance, where coming into the Premier League is based on merit,” Kambo told journalists shortly after the ruling.
The other three complainants in this case are Joseph Mbogba, Tamba Gbetuwa, and Mohamed Belloh Yilla.
SLFA spokesperson Ibrahim Kamara told journalists after the ruling that the injunction has now delayed the playoffs.
He said, “As we speak, the different teams are now in Port Loko and Makeni where the playoffs will hold. This means everything has now come to a standstill. But it’s a court decision and we must respect that.””
Whiles giving the ruling on Tuesday, Justice Komba Kamanda said the complainants would pay a heavy compensation if they failed to prove their case. The lawyer of the defendants, Salmata Bah said she needed time to put together documents showing that those who filed the case against the FA were not in the capacity to bring such action.”
The matter is set to continue Friday September 27.
