Ghana Premier League giants, Asante Kotoko, have officially written to the Normalisation Committee (NC) of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to rescind their decision to boycott the Special Competition Tier I semi-final clash against Hearts of Oak at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday.
A letter signed on behalf of Kotoko’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), George Amoakoh, by the Director of Communications, Samuel Sarfo Duku (Esq), and delivered to the NC on Tuesday stated, however, that the decision was not born out of defeatism and cowardice.
“We hereby notify you of our firm decision to rescind our earlier decision to withdraw from the Tier-One Special Competition as was communicated to you in our letter dated 3rd June 2019,” the letter read.
“We have arrived at this decision in the interest of Ghana football and to put an end to the public outcry over the issue.” the stressed.
However, the Porcupine Warriors still believed that the NC was unfair to them by insisting that the encounter be played at the Accra Sports Stadium, despite being entitled to only 30 per cent of the gate proceeds.
“We still strongly believe that we presented genuine and legitimate concerns through proper and laid down procedures which ought to have been dealt with in a manner that would not have brought things this far. Hence, our current position should not be misconstrued as defeatism and cowardice.”
“You may recall that our initial petition was in support of a double-legged semi-final match and this was a reference to a provision in the regulations. Apart from ensuring fairness, the clubs would have made more economic gains out of this format.”
“Alternatively, we indicated our support for a one-off game at a neutral ground with an equal sharing of gate proceeds which was also in the spirit of fairness and equality.”
“To our surprise, both suggestions were not given the needed attention, compelling us to withdraw from the competition in the circumstance. There was however a breakthrough after we had been impressed upon by the organisers to accept a one-off game at the Accra Sports Stadium with an equal sharing of proceeds between the clubs which we agreed and requested for a letter to that effect, but has still not been delivered.”
“In a very strange twist of events, your outfit seems not to budge on its earlier decision not to address any of our concerns and we do not intend to belabour the issue and have consequently come to this conclusion unconditionally,” the letter concluded.
