The renowned Basse Mansajang community team, Manju FC, have threatened to sue the Basse District Sports Committee (BDSC) in court after rejecting their appeal against their quarterfinal opponents, Bena Basse Football Academy, for allegedly fielding an ineligible player in the encounter in the Basse Subzone Nawetan.
Manju and Bena Basse played a barren draw in a tightly contested and highly attended game with the latter winning 4-3 on post-match penalty shootouts on Tuesday, September 24, 2024.
Manju contested that Bena Basse used a player from Kansala FC, Jaliba Camara, who against the Committee’s regulations, was allegedly not given a clearance by Kansala to make a transfer to any club and that he was not eligible to play in their quarterfinal match. This appeal as confirmed by Manju, was rejected by the committee on numerous grounds which they found dubious and unreasonable.
‘’We wrote an appeal after the game and the appeal was rejected and we wrote back on Friday afternoon, now waiting for the Committee’s response. If justice is not served, we are ready to take legal action against the Committee because they are conspiring with Bena Basse on the forgery of Jaliba’s transfer document,’’ Kelepha Koita, Assistant Secretary of the club said.
When contacted, the Technical Director of the Committee, Abdoulie Nyang said the due process was done under their transfer procedures and has approved the transfer of Jaliba accordingly. He, however, declared the appeal by Manju against Bena Basse as ‘’null and void’’ for failure to also meet the 24-hour deadline.
‘’Jaliba’s issue has been dragging since the 5th of June, and on the 6th of June, I received his transfer form on my desk before the Super Cup final. The form was endorsed by me as the Technical Director and Jaliba played the Super Cup against Interior,’’ Abdoulie clarified.
‘’My role as a Technical Director is to give out the transfer form and when it comes back with the signatures and everything, whether someone signed or another, I don’t care about that. As far as I see the signatures of both the player and former club, I have to endorse it as the last person,’’ he added.
Meanwhile, Kansala, on the other hand, denied giving a transfer clearance for Jaliba Camara to move to any club and was surprised to come across a forged document allegedly confirming their approval for the player’s move to Bena Basse Football Academy.
‘’We have distanced ourselves from this transfer. It was a surprise to see a signature forged on our behalf to enable the transfer of Jaliba. We will do our best to know who did this criminal offence against us because we were never communicated neither by the Committee, not Bena Basse,’’ a leading member of Kansala, Essa Drammeh stressed.
However, Mr Nyang denied these allegations of conspiring to favour Bena Basse over forged documents and believes his committee has no obligation to respond to questions regarding this matter.
‘’It is Fakebba Susso of Bena Basse who took the transfer form from me. He went and filled it and brought it back with all the signatures. They should go and ask Bena Basse where did they get the signatures from?’’ Nyang directed.
However, the Director of Bena Basse, Fakebba Susso has said that they have not been served any letter of notice by the Committee regarding the said appeal to enable them to respond, but instead, they also show the letter on social media and therefore, cannot react.
On the issue of the alleged forged document, Fakebba has not much to tell this medium, but said, ‘’I leave it to the committee. This case was since the Super Cup final or even before and that is why I am not interested.’’
At the group stage, T. Junction FC won a similar case against Sabi FC and was duly awarded all three points in that particular game despite initially losing. With this latest, there is now a growing concern from football lovers and followers in Basse about the committee’s impartiality in making decisions in such cases.
