Asante Kotoko CEO asks government to support club with $1 million
CEO of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Nana Yaw Amponsah, has appealed to government to consider supporting Ghanaian clubs who will be competing in Africa with $1 million as he believes it will go a long towards helping the clubs succeed in African club competitions.
For a decade now, Ghanaian clubs have struggled to progress in the CAF Champions League and the Confederation Cup, with qualification to the group stages the competitions even hard to come by.
Last season, Hearts of Oak were eliminated in the second round of the preliminary qualifiers last season as they lost 6-1 on aggregate to eventual winners for the CAF Champions league Wydad Athletic Club.
They then dropped to the last round of qualifiers for the Confederation but lost again to Algerian club JS Saoura.
”If the government of the day is able to devote 6-8 million dollars for Afcon for the Black Stars to go and represent Ghana, then why can’t the government help a team like Kotoko or Hearts or whoever wins the league with a 1 million support to go and lift high the flag of Ghana,” he said.
“What is the prize of winning the league? It’s about 250,000 Ghana cedis which is about $30,000 and that cannot even be used to play one home match. So the prize money is not there, no sponsorship for the league.
”I would like to send a message to the entire nation, his Excellency the President, the government of the day. Ghana used to have four slots on the continent but now we have two due to the fact that we don’t really perform well when we go.’
”When Kotoko goes to Africa this time, we are not just going as Kotoko, we are going to represent Ghana.”
Kumasi Asante Kotoko will compete in the CAF Champions League next season after winning the 2021/2022 Ghana Premier League title.
