LFF ban Ofosu Appiah over alleged match-fixing
I'm happy to play football again - Ofosu Appiah after his ban lift
The Court of Arbitration for Sports(CAS) have annulled a one-year ban imposed by the Latvia Football Federation on Ghanaian player, Ofosu Appiah.
In 2021, the LFF suspended the former Asante Kotoko defender together with his three other teammates for engaging in match-fixing.
However, the Professional Footballers Association of Ghana(PFAG) together with the International Federation of Professional Footballers(FIFPro) appealed the decision at CAS to get the suspension nullified.
CAS subsequently ruled on the matter and acquitted Ofosu Appiah on the basis that the case by the LFA held no water.
“National football associations should not be able to get away with improper disciplinary proceedings and then fail to compensate the players for the harm that is being done to their careers,” FIFPRO legal director Roy Vermeer said as quoted by fifpro.org
Reacting to the ruling by CAS, Appiah could not hide his delight to play again.
“I am very happy that I can finally play again. What the Latvian Football Federation did to me was unfair and affected my family and me in a very serious way," he said as quoted by fifpro.org.
He then talked about the challenging situation he found himself in due to the ban.
“I was not able to work and earned no money for months. I am hoping that the Latvian Football Federation will negotiate a settlement with me so I don’t have to start a new court case for the damage that they have done to my career.”
Founder of PFAG, Antony Baffoe react to the announcement by FIFPRO tweeted:
"This is very good news.. it shows how important the work of FIFPRO and the domestic players unions is !.." With them and for them"
@FIFPRO @[email protected] done"
On July 31, 2021, The LFF announced its decision to banned the now-defunct FC Noah Jurmala center-back together with his two teammates, goalkeeper Bojan Knezevic, forward Aleksey Babir.
The LFF in a statement cited that the three players were found guilty of match-fixing 'after obtaining, compiling, and analyzing information' available to them.
"After obtaining, compiling, and analyzing the information, the LFF Fair Games and Ethics Committee has acknowledged that the game was manipulated by the representatives of FC "Noah Jūrmala" in order to achieve a specific result of the game," the LFF said.
Below is Anthony Yeboah's tweet
Ghanaian defender, Ofosu Appiah