Coastal-based side Fortune Ladies have been let off the hook, at least for now, in their fight for promotion to the FKF Women Division One, following an order by the Sports Dispute Tribunal to put on hold the decision by the FKF Caretaker Committee to cancel the side’s promotion letter and instead force fresh playoffs between two other teams.Despite emerging the winners in the playoff and even being given the letter of promotion by the Branch office, Fortune Ladies were yet to be included in the league that kicked off earlier in January.According to minutes from a meeting with all the participating teams in the Coast region seen by Mozzart Sport, it was agreed that the teams would be divided into two pools, with the top two teams in each pool facing off in the semifinal, and the eventual winner in the final gaining the promotion to Division One.Fortune Ladies finished second in Pool A, behind Progressive Starlets with Ukunda Starlets topping the other Pool as Coast Starlets took the second spot.As per the agreement, before the mini-tournament kicked off, Fortune Starlets faced off with Ukunda Starlets and edged them out 2-1 to book a spot in the final with progressive Starlets who had seen off Coast Starlets in post-match penalties in the other semifinal.Instead, the committee ordered fresh playoffs between the two group winners, Ukunda Starlets, and Progressive Starlets, disregarding the agreement by the participating teams before the matches kicked off.The FKF Women Division One League kicked off earlier in January, with some of the teams playing up to four matches despite the quagmire surrounding the promotion technicalities in the coast region.@KiberaGirls and @RoyalStarlets lead the park. After four rounds, this is how the FKF Women Division One logs in zone A and B look like. #FKFWD1 pic.twitter.com/B6YKOllELq— FKF Caretaker – Women (@fkfcc_women) January 30, 2022 Following the development, and numerous attempts to settle the matter without being heard, Fortune Ladies decided to seek legal redress with the Sports Dispute Tribunal, filing an application against the FKF Caretaker Committee head of competitions Ali Amuor and the entire leagues and competitions subcommittee.In the application, Fortune Ladies sought to have the decision cancelling their promotion revoked and be included in the FKF Women Division One for the current season, although the details in their application quoted 2022/2023 season yet the current campaign is 2021/2022.The tribunal ordered that;That the Application be and is hereby certified as urgent;ii. That pending the hearing and determination of the suit interpartes an order for stay be and is hereby issued upon the 1st and 2nd Respondents staying the decision of the 2nd Respondent as against the Applicant enshrined in the letters dated 20th and 22nd January 2022;iii. That pending the hearing and determination of the suit interpartes an order for prohibition be and is hereby issued prohibiting the 1st and 2nd Respondents from enforcing their decision as against the Applicant enshrined in the letters dated 20th and 22nd January 2022 and from proceeding with the play-offs as scheduled;iv. That the Application be served upon the Respondents immediately and in any event before Thursday 3rd February 2022;v. That the matter be listed for mention for directions on Tuesday, 8th February 2022 at 2:30p.m. via Microsoft Teams or such other medium as the Tribunal shall determine.”
