By Danesius Marteh,
The protest committee of the 2025/2026 national county sports meet convened a hearing at the Liberia Football Association (LFA) headquarters in Swankamore community in Congo Town on 26 December.
Chaired by Cllr. Kula Jackson, the committee heard oral arguments and received pieces of evidence.
I have been reading the rules, speaking to lawyers and reviewing past cases in order to make some comparative analyses.
So let’s examine the whole nine yards.
Lofa and its supporters have been dwelling on the procedural aspect of the protest more than the substantive nature of it.
Article 15, section 17.1 says “protests, grievances and complaints from a match must be registered on the match report sheet before, during and immediately after the match, and counter-signed by the opposing team’s captain, to be followed by a formal letter within four hours during the preliminary rounds and 24 hours from the quarter, semi and grand finals. The complaining county shall paid a non-refundable fee of L$30,000.”
Lofa have argued that although the protest was registered on the game sheet on the match day and formal letter written on the same day (21 December), it was received by Deputy Minister Henry Yonton on 22 December at 12:25PM.
Truth be told, this is above the four hours even if the match ended at midnight on the day the letter was received by Yonton.
The Supreme Court, in a litany of opinions, has underscored the importance of filing briefs and or returns on time or in time.
In the tenure case of Cllr. Garrison Yealue of Governance Commission, Andrew Peters of National Identification Registry, Edwina Zackpah and all of Liberia Telecommunications Authority and Reginald Nagbe of Liberia National Lottery Authority versus the executive branch, the Supreme Court removed from the records the returns filed by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) because it was filed outside of the mandate of the justice in chambers.
Justice Yussif Kaba, on March 12, 2024, mandated MOJ to file its returns on
or before March 22, 2024 at 4:00PM but MOJ elected to file its returns on March 25 and 26, 2024 with “no excuse requesting the court for enlargement of time in consonance with the laws and procedures in this jurisdiction.”
By the parity of reasoning, Cape Mount has a fallback on the line in quotation because section 1.7 of the Civil Procedure Law says “when a filing deadline falls on a Sunday or public holiday, it is extended to the next business day”.
The game was played on a Sunday and the next business day was the time Yonton received it.
The real issue for me is protecting the sporting integrity of the tournament.
Article 18, section 21.0 (fines and penalties) says “any county who registers or fields an illegal player shall forfeit the match and pay a fine of US$500 before playing its next match. If said county lost their last match or don’t pay the fine, the amount will be deducted from the following year’s allotment.”
Lofa should therefore forfeit the match on grounds that it registered and fielded five first division players.
They are Jeremiah Johnson, Francis Doe and Maxwell Keller of Wologizi FC and Darius Garmondeh and Alexander Curtis of Watanga FC.
Article 11 (player’s eligibility), section 13.13 provides for each county to register and field no more than three first division players and three second division players.
By international best practices, the organizers are obligated to enforce the regulations without a protest from Cape Mount or any county.
Liberia and Namibia didn’t file protests when Fifa deducted six points from Equatorial Guinea, which were shared three apiece between the two countries, for illegally playing Emilio Nsue López in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Lesotho didn’t register their protest on the game sheet against South Africa on 21 March in the same qualifiers when defender Teboho Mokoena, who received yellow cards against Benin in November 2023 and Zimbabwe in November 2024, was illegally used.
The regulations say protest must reach Fifa disciplinary committee in writing, indicating the relevant grounds, within 24 hours of the end of the match in question.
But Lesotho complained to Fifa that Teboho was used during the 2-0 defeat on 25 March.
Fifa acted on the substantive issue to protect the sporting integrity of the game and awarded Lesotho a 3-0 victory.
During the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Fifa awarded Angola a 3-0 victory after Liberia illegally used goalkeeper Nathaniel Sherman, who should have missed the match after receiving two yellow cards.
The original match ended 4-1 at the Tundavala National Stadium in Lubango on 7 September 2013.
Finally, let me examine Lofa’s arguments that the players are third division players.
Lofa and the players colluded in order to meet the eligibility requirements.
Lofa was the only county that didn’t submit their players’ list to the LFA for verification.
Francis and Maxwell played for Wologizi in a 4-2 defeat to Gardnersville FC in the LFA first division league on 16 November.
Cyrus Moore replaced Maxwell while Francis substituted Henry Korfeh in the 72nd minute when the score was 3-1.
But the duo, with the speed of light, transferred to third division side Howard FC when the first division window closed on 31 October.
There is another red flag on the irregularities surrounding the transfers of Francis and Jeremiah to Howard FC originating from Lofa County on 7 December at 12:47PM and 1:24PM.
Miracles aren’t only happening in the churches but also at the LFA, which has some serious integrity issues.
The disqualification of the men’s under-17 team in October 2022 by CAF for age fraud and the age discrepancies of Lawrence Kumeh and Daniel Nyumah, which barred them from playing in a 1-1 draw with Senegal in an African Nations Championship qualifier at the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) sports on 22 December 2024, are clear examples of frauds taking place at the LFA under the watch of President Mustapha Ishola Raji, a CAF executive committee member.
In any case, whether the players were loaned, contracts terminated for sporting just cause or transfers properly done, the plausible argument and manifest necessity behind everything is wrapped around collusion.
How can first division players suddenly agree to transfer to a third division team simply because they want to play in the county meet?
Aren’t they ambitious and thinking about playing for the national teams or in competitive leagues out of Liberia?
Would the very same players decline a trial from Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, Zamalek of Egypt or MC Alger of Algeria just to compete in the county meet?
The organizers will need to tighten the rules so that counties don’t collude to exploit the grey areas just as it did when River Cess won the 2007 edition.
River Cess exploited the rules, which called for only third division players, by fielding Johnson FC, a third division team.
Under the leadership of Cllr. Jamesetta Howard-Wolokollie (now an associate justice), the rules were changed to limit the selection of third division players to no more than five per team following an UNMIL Radio investigation by this writer.
We should expect many fictitious transfers to the third division by counties with financial muscles if Lofa wins the protest thereby eroding the sporting integrity of the games.
It is my hope that the committee will rely on the doctrine of Stare Decisis (Latin for “to stand by things decided) when it rules on 29 December.
