Gyan Ban was sent off in Ghana’s final group game of the 2006 World Cup, and as Nations Cup hosts, the Black Stars have not played any competitive game since then.
But CAF was reported to have cleared the striker to play in Ghana’s opening game of the African Nations Cup this weekend.
However, an e-mail to Fifa to seek clarification came back with the following response
“We cannot speak about the case at hand since we don’t have all details,” Nicholas Maingot of the Fifa Media Office wrote to KickOffGhana.com. However, we draw your attention to Art. 38 par 2a and, in particular, par 3 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code.”
Art 38 par 2a of the FDC states as follows:
‘Match suspensions in relation to an expulsion pronounced on a player outside of a competition (separate match[es]) or not served during the competition for which they were intended (elimination or the last match in the competition) are carried over as follows:
a) Fifa World Cup: carried over to the representative team’s subsequent official match; And Para 3 of the same Article 38 states very unambiguously
“If a representative team is hosting a final competition and is consequently not required to participate in qualifying matches to reach the final competition of this tournament and its next official match is in that final competition, any match suspension pronounced in accordance with par. 2 of this article shall be carried over to the representative team’s next friendly match.”
Clearly, according to the Fifa Disciplinary Code, Gyan stands suspended for the opening game of the African Nations Cup. But with the player having been given the clearance by CAF to play, it is unclear what the situation is.
