By Bobor Dan Kamara
Football world governing body FIFA, in a letter written to the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), has strongly warned that the undue intruding action of the country’s High Court to football matters could upshot to an indefinite suspension of the SLFA.
It stated that the fundamental principle outlined in in Article 51 of their statutes illustrates that disputes should be resolved through arbitration tribunals, which prohibit the recourse to ordinary court of law, including for provisional measures except when recommended in the FIFA regulations or binding legal provisions.
It’s against this backdrop it referenced the SLFA statutes (2019 edition), stressing the need for internal settlement of disputes in the SLFA or by extension through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). “The SLFA’s internal channels must be exhausted before any dispute can be submitted to an external court, unless explicitly prohibited by external court,” it noted.
The letter could be seen as a clarion call for SLFA to normalize settling disputes internally.
