Influential statesman of Ghana football J. Y. Appiah has hit Alhaji Karim Grunsah with a $500,000 defamation lawsuit claiming the owner of King Faisal Football Club falsely accused him of corruption in a recent interview on a local radio station.
Court bailiffs served Grunsah with the lawsuit at the grounds of the Extraordinary Congress of the Ghana FA on Thursday when the football fraternity met to discuss the resumption of the game.
Little did Grunsah know that an interview he had on Asempa FM few days ago accusing the former GHALCA boss J. Y. Appiah of mismanagement and involving in football related corrupt activities had sparked the latter to action.
This is the second Appiah has gone to court over an interview damaging his reputation after winning a massive $200,000 court judgement against the radio station Fox FM over false accusations nearly a decade ago.
Appiah jealously guards his reputation and the recent interview on Asempa FM has sparked him into action once again.
In the interview Grusah accused the former Chairman of the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA) of mismanagement labelling Appiah as a ‘foolish man’ who is always after individual selfish interest.
“J.Y Appiah is a foolish man, ask him why he was sacked from Cocoa-board,” Alhaji said.
Appiah told the court that Grunsah's 'false claims have damaged his reputation to his family and business associates' and he is seeking 2.5 million cedis in compensation, public apology and retraction.
Grunsah attacked Appiah pointing to the divisions among the members of the Association and the neglect of club administrators perceived to be against the leadership as a clear sign of his inability to manage GHALCA.
Alhaji Karim Grusah, who is also the bank-roller of the King Faisal FC, asserted that some of the actions of J. Y. Appiah during his time in office, go against the principles that underpinned the formation of GHALCA.
The current state of the Association, Alhaji Karim Grusah insisted, is attributable to the performance of ex-GHALCA boss’ time in office as he sought his selfish interest in all decisions.
The football administrator said in an interview on Asempa FM that, “others sacrificed to establish GHALCA with their aim to let the clubs administrators speak on some issues which worried them as football clubs but now the association has lost the respect from the clubs due to some individual selfish interest.”
“The association’s mismanagement started at the time when J. Y. Appiah was in office as GHALCA chairman. He teamed with some members of the association who always seek to do things in their interest and not the association as a body. This chairman and his ‘team’ kicked against some decisions that were taken then to help the improvement of the association.”
Alhaji Grusah added that the Association will attempt to address the challenges they are confronted with when they hold their Emergency General meeting.