Kotoko yet to declare CAF Cup gate proceeds
Kotoko yet to declare CAF Cup gate proceeds
One board member, Col George Pattington, who is also
a member of the ticket committee, upon contact said the entire gate proceeds
were sent to the bank after the match, thereby leaving him with scanty idea
about the total figure.
He, however, disclosed that 45,000 tickets were printed and that they were
anticipating to hit anything around the region of ¢1.2bn, all things being
equal. In trying to correct the wrong perception that the stadium is an 80,000 seater, he explained that the Kumasi Stadium had not taken
more than 45,000 fans in the past 20 years.
He said further information on the issue could be sought from George Amoako, the club’s director of administration and finance.
But when Amoako’s views were sought on the issue, he
bluntly refused to give out any such information.
“You’ve already speculated how much was realised, so there is no need to give
you any figure. “We have our own newspaper and will publish everything in it at
the appropriate time,” he stated.
Meanwhile, further investigations have revealed that majority of the board
members have no knowledge about details of the Spacefon
and Simnet sponsorship deals. It has also come to
light that at a meeting on 2 September this year, the Chief Executive of
Kotoko, Herbert Mensah, informed the board about his decision to leave at the
end of the season. According to a source the other board members and Herbert
agreed that a process should be initiated to ensure a smooth transition.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 December 2002 - High-level
disagreement over the technical direction of Ghana's senior national team, the
Black Stars, and player aloofness have combined to put coach E.K. Afranie under intense heat.
With the minister of Youth and Sports, Edward Osei Kwaku,
and GFA chairman Ben Koufie, opposed to each other
over the "foreign coach or local coach debate", coach Afranie has hit the receiving end of what appears to be
lack of support from the F.A.
Minister Osei Kwaku last month made clear his
preference for a local coach, citing the heavy financial implications. But the
same venue where the minister made the declaration, chairman
Ben Koufie announced the F.A.'s
counter position a week later.
In the midst of that conflict stands coach Afraine,
now feeling the heat, which has long been associated with the hot seat of the
senior national soccer team, the Black Stars. Barely three months after his
appointment as the caretaker trainer for the Stars, Afranie
is already entangled with the usual frustration which has been the bane of
almost all coaches of the stars as far as team-building and preparations for
international matches are concerned. And he believes the F.A. is not supportive
Having plunged into a false sense of security after his
first assignment against
After hoping to have the full compliment of the home-based players for that
match following the end of the premiership, the ‘Coachhene’
as he is affectionately called, was a disappointing lot on the match day after
being compelled to struggle to assemble 18 players for the match after some key
Hearts players, including Charles Taylor and Bernard Dong-Bortey,
failed to join the team for various reasons leading to the Stars, 0-1 loss to
the Super Eagles in Accra.
As if that was not enough, coach Afranie found
himself deep inside similar crisis when the Stars left for
Coach Afranie was also bitter about the lack of
cooperation from the Ghana Football Association (GFA) in respect of his
intention to invite Tunisia-based Godwin Attram who
is willing to join the Stars for Sunday's match. Afranie
indicated, however, that he was going to pursue the issue in
What perhaps represented the coach's greatest disappointment
was the inability of Borussia Moenchengldbach
midfielder, Lawrence Aidoo, to make the trip after
the player had earlier given him a firm assurance. According to the coach, Aidoo who arrived in the country for holidays last Tuesday
eventually notified him of his inability to make the trip due to fatigue.
In his disappointment, coach Afranie
hurriedly arranged for the inclusion of Amui Quaye
and William Tierro of Olympics and Liberty
Professionals respectively in the team.
The Stars trainer was, however, optimistic of a good outing against the
Pharaohs as he disclosed that the expected inclusion of Bernard Dong-Bortey from the
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 20 December 2002 - Champion club Accra Hearts of Oak last
Wednesday released exciting their intelligent forward Bernard Don Bortey to top UAE side Al Wasl on
a three-month loan, starting from the day his ITC will be dispatched from the
Ghana’s FA to the emirates, the club’s mouthpiece Hearts News reported.
The loan
agreement which states that the UAE club will not have any right to transfer
the player which has been approved by Hearts Board chairman, Ato Ahwoi, and deputy chairman
Ernest Bediako. He will earn the club $40,000 (about
¢238m) for the three months duration after which the player automatically
reverts to Hearts.
The
advantage in the agreement for Hearts is that, even if the contract starts by
the first of January 2003, three months would be up in March next year, thus
making Bortey eligible to feature for the Ghanaian
champions in the first leg of the 1/16th stage of the CAF Champions
League qualifier slated for 13 April.
The 2002
Premier League joint goalking who is currently in the
emirates on trials is said to have mesmerized the soccer crazy fans with his
lightening speed, attacking play and his accuracy at set pieces, scoring six
goals with four coming from freekicks to send the
club officials scrambling for his signature.
Al Wasl have accepted to pay an enticement fee of $10,000 and
a monthly salary of $5,000 a month to Bortey in a
contract that makes provision for winning bonus, accommodation, transportation,
insurance, medical care and free air tickets. Bortey,
a key figure in this year’s Hearts league success is expected to lead the Phobian assault on
GRi…/
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Sampson
Boafo
attributed the low development of sports in the region to a difficulty in
finding a place for training and expressed the hope that the new centre would
fill that gap. He said his administration was making efforts to revive the
inter schools sports programme and said with these programmes in place at the
infant stages, a lot more teams were expected to move to the elite division
soon.
Eddie Owusu
Afram, a reporter with the Vanguard newspaper, was so
sad and could not eat his fufu, a delicacy of the
He said the
loss of the fabulous boys was a loss to the whole nation, "and had they
won the cup, the cup would have been not only for Kotoko, but the whole nation."
GRi…/
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