By Saio Marrah
The Sierra Leone Football Premier League matches have resumed over the weekend after Presiding Judge Adrian Fisher, discharged an injunction that had halted the league, and advised for out of court settlement.
The agreement between the Premier League Board (PLB) and the aggrieved parties, Alusine Kamara and Ahmed Musa, however remains undisclosed to the public as indicated by the presiding judge’s ruling, who warned that revealing the contents of the agreement would be a contempt of court.
Justice Fisher discharged the injunction on Friday 10th November this year after informing the court that the reason the court does not want to preside over the case was it could be viewed by international football ruling bodies as government interference.
He called on the executive members of both the PLB and Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) who were present and the aggrieved parties to sit, talk and then reach him to say they have sorted out their differences.
Justice Fisher called on the country’s Minister of Sport, Augusta James-Teima, who was also present in court to serve as a leader over the two parties in their dialogue.
He admonished them to have the matter resolved in the interest of the country or the country could be banned by FIFA.
Justice Fisher stood down the case advice for a negotiation between the two parties after sensing that there were willingness between the two parties to talk over it as a football family in the interest of let the country’s football.
At the commencement of the civil case, Lawyer Pa Momoh Fofanah and Emmanuel Teddy Koroma representing the first and second plaintiffs respectively, told the court there are internal mechanism that both the PLB and SLFA could use to settle the dispute, but they were given deaf ears, despite five letters addressed to the different authorities.
He said they had no option, but to go court for redress.
Lawyer Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai owner of Luawa FC told the court that the then injunction adversely affected his team, as according to him, the Luawa FC would have played two games at the time the injunction was lifted.
He also informed the court that he had also suffered financial loss because he has a contractual agreement with the coach, players and other staff of the team that he pays weekly even when they are not playing games.
He also noted that his team’s name had been brought into disrepute as his team had no case to answer.
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