Top Ghanaian judge clinches key post at FIFA

A Supreme Court judge of Ghana, Justice Anin Yeboah, has been named the new head of FIFA’s disciplinary committee (DC).

The position will span the next four years and the new DC members are to take office immediately. He takes over from Swiss Sulser Claudio who last headed the DC.

Anin was voted to head the body in a landslide vote by members at the just-concluded FIFA Congress in Bahrain (10-11 May). He is to be supported by Paraguayan lawyer and university lecturer, Alejandro Piera.

Previously Anin served as a member of the Adjudicatory Chamber of FIFA’s independent Ethics Committee – a body primarily responsible for investigating possible infringements of the FIFA Code of Ethics.

FIFA Congress is the organisation’s supreme body. Numerous articles dictate which items are to be discussed and which decisions are to be passed at this forum.

As the legislative body of world football – football’s parliament in other words – the Congress bears a particular responsibility for developing the game, the nature of which has been subject to increasingly rapid change over the past few years. Each member has one vote at the Congress.

About the FIFA Disciplinary Committee

1. The Disciplinary Committee is composed of a chairman, a vice-chairman and the number of members deemed necessary. The chairman and the vice-chairman must have legal training.

2. The Commission shall act in accordance with the FIFA Disciplinary Code. Decisions are made in the presence of at least three members. In special cases, the chairman may decide alone.

3. The Disciplinary Committee may impose sanctions on members, clubs, officials, players, game agents and players’ agents, as defined in the Statutes and the FIFA Disciplinary Regulations.

4. Congress and the FIFA Council reserve the disciplinary power in regard to the suspension and exclusion of members

 Austin Ohaegbu