Danesius Marteh
Attorney-at-law Joseph Yado Howe has gone in the record books at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Howe successfully convinced CAS to overturn the relegation of Jubilee FC to the third division by the executive committee of the Liberia Football Association (LFA).
He had submitted four pleas with three fully granted and one partially accepted.
CAS ordered the LFA to provisionally reinstate Jubilee, who were in the second division, in the first division for the 2025/2026 season pending the decision by the club licensing appeal board (CLAB).
It asked CLAB to resume jurisdiction and reach a decision on Jubilee’s appeal of 14 April against the decision issued on 14 April by the LFA to relegate Jubilee to the third division in a January 2 letter written by secretary-general Emmett Crayton under clear instruction from President Mustapha Raji.
This was contained in an eight-count arbitral award delivered by Atty. Herve Le Lay of France on 31 October.
Howe wanted the LFA to fully refund the costs of arbitration but Herve shared the cost with 25-percent for Jubilee and 75-percent for the LFA.
Jubilee spent more than US$35,000 because the LFA refused to pay its share of cost with the hope that the case would have been dismissed thinking and believing that Jubilee couldn’t afford the money.
“It is good to know. I didn’t know that this was the first attempt by a Liberian lawyer at CAS. It adds on what we already felt before coming to this profession.
“It is a good feeling for a young man who believes in a promising legal profession. It took a lot to convince the owners of Jubilee that we had a good case to win at CAS and here we are celebrating a big victory over the LFA,” said Howe on the Prime Morning Drive on Prime FM 105.5 on 6 November.
Howe and LFA legal affairs manager Benedict Yarsiah (Cllr.) became the first Liberian lawyers to plead at CAS.
