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| Bakers owner QCurl Sharif, shown above at last year's Bacchanal to the Future, allegedly is planning a lawsuit to force the NFFA to award his team the 2017 title. |
By R.E. Porter
Associated Web Press
According to a source close to London Bakers owner QCurl Sharif, the team is planning to sue the NFFA in order to strip the West Nashville Beelzebubbas of the 2017 championship for nonpayment of league fees, the AWP has learned.
Sharif used a similar legal maneuver in an attempt to the strip the 2014 title from the Downtown Corsairs. In that 2015 lawsuit, Bakers attorneys not only cited nonpayment of league fees, but also claimed the Corsairs attempted to "gain an unfair advantage" by violating the league's 160 hour rule that prohibits owners from spending more than 160 hours per week in online scouting, research, and personnel moves.
As with the 2015 suit, the source, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said Sharif will bring the suit before federal judge Naomi Morningstar, a close personal friend of the Bakers owner. The source went on to say the suit will ask the court to award the 2017 title to the Bakers, claiming the team's narrow loss to the Beelzebubbas in the semifinals of the playoffs should have been a win by forfeit, due to the Bubbas' failure to pay their league fees by season's end, as is required by league rules. That win by forfeit would have put the Bakers in the championship game where they would have defeated the Corsairs.
The AWP confirmed with the league office the West Nashville franchise has yet to pay its 2017 league fees. When reached for comment, Beelzebubbas chief legal counsel Ellis D. Hayes said, "For the Bakers, the road to the championship has always run through Judge Morningstar's courtroom."
More on this story as it develops.
More on this story as it develops.
