Istanbul FC player Henry A. Salifu handed one-year ban from football activities

The GFA Disciplinary Committee has banned Henry A. Salifu, a player of Istanbul FC from all football activities for one year running from Thursday, June 18, 2015 to Friday, June 17, 2016.

The deicision was taken after the player was charged with two counts as per the Charge Sheet with regards to the MTN FA Cup round of 16 match between Aduana Stars FC and Istanbul FC played on 24th May, 2015.

On the first count, Henry A. Salifu was charged for failing to control himself after he had been shown a red card and that instead of leaving the field of play, he rather he stamped on the head of Derick Sasraku who was then on the ground in violation of the Articles 35(7)(d) and 39(7) of the GFA General Regulations in respect of this match.

On the second count, Henry A. Salifu was charged for failing to control himself after he had been shown a red card and that instead of leaving the field of play, he rather approached match referee and assaulted the referee Patrick Kyeremateng in violation of the violence or a breach of Articles 35(7)(d) and 39(7) of the GFA General Regulations in respect of this match.

DEFENCE
Henry A. Salifu did not respond to the Charge Sheet sent to him and also posted on the official website of the Ghana Football Association.

PROCEEDINGS AND FINDINGS
The Committee examined the depositions in the Charge Sheet, the reports of the match officials and the official video of the said match.

The Committee has established as a fact that the Charge Sheet was sent to Henry A. Salifu and was, more importantly for our purposes, also published on the official website of the Ghana Football Association (www.ghanafa.org) which has become one of the official mode of communication for the GFA since the GFA Congress gave the mode its approval on December 30, 2014.

It is the view of the Committee that there is a proof that Article 35(19) of the General Regulations was complied with, and therefore Henry A. Salifu have no excuse whatsoever for his failure to respond to the charges and the invitation to the GFA Disciplinary Committee.

Article 35(19) reads: “All official correspondence including but not limited to daily and weekly information updates, fines, debts, costs, notices, invitations, decisions, communiqués and any other information of the Association, its bodies, its Organs, its committees or the Secretariat shall be deemed to have been duly served on a club, its officers, players, supporters, agents, representatives or whoever described, if the service of the said correspondence is communicated to the Club or the Club Secretary or the Club owner, or the Club Representatives submitted to the GFA through its fax, e-mail address, postal address, or delivery of a hard copy thereof or is made or published through the GFA newspaper or newsletter or other national newspapers, the GFA website or announced through any radio station or television station or posted on the GFA notice board”.

The Committee will therefore proceed to deal with the matter fairly on its merit with regards to the evidence before it.

The Committee watched the video of the match and noticed regrettably the grave nature of the violence and misconduct exhibited by Henry A. Salifu. The behaviour of Henry A. Salifu a player who had already been shown a red card was simply violent to say the least. It was evident from the video sadly that Henry A. Salifu did not only violently stamp on the head of a fellow professional player but he also violently punched the match referee without provocation whatever.

It is the position of the Committee that this behaviour if not curbed can affect the entire football administration in the country. The Committee takes a very serious view of the violence against the player and the referee and will apply an appropriate sanction in that respect.

The Disciplinary Committee was satisfied with the evidence before it that the actions of Henry A. Salifu on both counts are in breach of the GFA General Regulations on both misconduct and violence and will sanction him accordingly.

The General Regulations under Article 35(9) states that “misconduct and violence shall be defined in accordance with Article 39(7)(a)”.

While Article 39(7)(a) of the General Regulations states as follows:

“Misconduct shall mean threat of death or harm or improper or ungentlemanly behaviour or any act that has the effect of putting the game of football into disrepute”.

Also, Article 39(7)(b) of the General Regulations states as follows:

“Violence includes assault and battery but shall not include assault without battery which for purpose of these regulations shall constitute misconduct”.

The Committee also took note of the fact that the behaviour of Henry A. Salifu initiated a series of actions which led to the abrupt end of the match thereby bringing the game into disrepute.

DECISION
The Disciplinary Committee makes the following decisions:

1. That for failing to leave the field of play after he had been showed a red card and for stamping on the head of Derick Sasraku who was then on the ground, player Henry A. Salifu is hereby suspended for five (5) matches in accordance with Articles 39(1)(a) of the General Regulations of the GFA.

2. That for failing to leave the field of play after he had been showed a red card and for assaulting referee Patrick Kyeremateng, player Henry A. Salifu is hereby suspended from all football activities for a period of one (1) year in accordance with Article 50(1) of the GFA Disciplinary Code and Articles 39(1)(a) of the General Regulations of the GFA.

3. That the suspensions in Decisions 1 and 2 above shall run concurrently and hence the combined effect of the two suspensions of player Henry A. Salifu herein shall take effect from today, Thursday, June 18, 2015 to Friday, June 17, 2016.

4. That should Henry A. Salifu be dissatisfied with or aggrieved by this Ruling he has within three (3) days of being notified of this Ruling to appeal to the Appeals Committee. (See Article 37(11) of the General Regulations of the GFA).