A petitioned signed by Michael Arthur Dadzie of Baduwa Legal Consult based in Cape Coast on behalf of Dwarfs stated that the suggested playoff involving Tamale City, Dwarfs and Liberty Professionals was an error of judgment on the part of the GFA Executive Council (ExCo) since it was inconsistent with the precedents of the FA in that regard.
 
It cited three instances in the past where the topmost clubs from the same zone were promoted to replace the affected clubs and therefore expected the FA to apply the same rule for Dwarfs to replace Ashantigold, having finished second in Zone Two Division One League in the 2021/2022 season.
 
"By a Congress decision on the 2019/2020 football season, Great Olympics and King Faisal were promoted to Premier Division in the 2021/2022 league. Their places in the Division One League were taken by Division Two clubs lying on top of the league table," it explained.

It pointed out that when Olympics were promoted to the Premier League last season, Sporting Mirren automatically reverted to the Division One League in Zone 3 as it was a purely Zone 3 matter. And in the same vein when King Faisal was promoted to the Premier Division in that same season, Wassaman from Zone 2 replaced them because Wassaman was the club that suffered relegated when Faisal went on relegation the previous season.
“This again was purely a Zone 2 affair.”
 
“In the 2014/2015  League when Tema Youth won a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Tema Youth was re-instated in the 2016 /2017 Premier Division and Dreams FC was relegated to Division One following the ruling by the Appeals Committee of the GFA.
“The Appeals Committee was ordered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to hear the case after Tema Youth petitioned the Switzerland-based body, claiming justice was not delivered in the two previous hearings by the Disciplinary Committee of the GFA,” the petition recalled.
 
It added that, “In another instance which happened in the 2019 season, by a decision of the FA Disciplinary Committee, Phar Rangers were demoted from Division One (Zone 3) and were replaced by Sporting Mirren who were on top of the relegated Division Two clubs in Zone 3.”

“It is important to state that in all these cited cases, the promotion of the clubs was limited to clubs in the same zone as the relegated clubs. The application of this rule is justifiable as it avoids the tendency of interpretation of the rule that may be skewed to favour underserved clubs and create more problems for the FA and delay the start of the 2022/2023 Premier League.

“Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs FC is convinced that the GFA would be firm in applying the precedents in the cases cited above and treat the current issue as a Zone 2 matter and limit it to Zone Two of the Division One League as was done in the previous cases as cited supra in this petition and that, it would not look beyond Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs FC in finding a replacement for relegated Ashantigold Sporting Club.”

Dwarfs further maintained that had the GFA Disciplinary Committee expedited action on the match-manipulation case involving Ashantigold and Inter Allies last season, they would not have suffered relegation in the first place in that league.
 
“It is the case of Dwarfs that several weeks after receipt of the Statements of Defence and Statement of Case from AshantiGold SC and Inter-Allies FC, the GFA Disciplinary Committee failed to pronounce judgment on the matter and the FA proceeded to commence the 2021/2022 Premier League.

“We state that the decision of the Disciplinary Committee regarding the match-fixing allegation, if it had expeditiously been delivered, would have afforded Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs FC the chance to participate in the 2021/2022 Premier League. This is because the rule is that where it was found by the Disciplinary Committee that the affected parties were guilty of the offence of match-fixing, the imposition of a sanction of demotion or suspension against AshantiGold would have meant that a team is brought from the Relegation Zone to add up to the list of participating teams in the 2021/2022 Premier League, in which case, the immediate beneficiary team would be Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs FC. However, this process was utterly ignored and the 2021/2022 Premier League season commenced,” the petition explained.
 
In a related development, Accra-based Division Two side, Danbort FC, has also petition the GFA ExCo to rescind its decision to organise a playoff and promote them and Dwarfs to replace Inter Allies and Ashantigold in Division One and the Premier League respectively.
 
It will be recalled that Ashantigold recently lost an appeal against their demotion to Division Two after they were found guilty for engaging in match manipulation with Inter Allies in a Premier League match in the 2020/2021 season.