What next for Kotoko?

So, this week, the Life Patron of Asante Kotoko, Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, disbanded the board and management of the club.

The board and management were chaired and led by Dr. Kwame Kyei and Nana Yaw Amponsah respectively, they were tasked with a three-year mandate by His Royal Majesty but during this stretch, he chose to discontinue their mandate at the club for reasons best known to him.
Whiles some suggested that the numerous purported infractions and hostilities between the board and management were partly due to the reason why they were all dissolved by the King others hold a much different view suggesting that the owner wanted a fresh direction as he wasn’t particularly pleased with how his once beloved club was being run into the ground by persons he entrusted to take care of it.

Dr. Kyei and his board bodied a bunch of notable personalities within the Ghanaian landscape with varied portfolios, so presumably, the idea was that they will help forestall the club to its glory days with the help of the appointed management led by the young ambitious Nana Yaw Amponsah but that vision was short-lived.

In their first season, it was evident they needed time to lay the necessary foundations at the club to get it running at its lethal best, dominate the domestic scene, win trophies, sign household names, restore the club to its former illustrious feat, wow supporters back to the stadium, secure mega sponsorship deals to propel the club, boast the infrastructure at the club and above all make significant gains on the African continent. Something the numerous stakeholders would have treasured but that was always going to be a long shot considering a host of variables.

In the second season, they reclaimed the league from their bitter rivals, Accra Hearts of Oak to set an unprecedented record of twenty-three league titles on the domestic front. All this was made possible by the appointment of Prosper Ogun Narteh, replacing Maxwell Konadu, who the management felt wasn’t delivering on the intended objectives assigned to him, hence he had to be let go.

Under the leadership of the board and management, they managed to rally the fans with the virtual seat challenge to help bolster the revenue of the club. This innovation was one of a kind, at the start, it came with its issues but with time, the fans embraced the prospect of helping their club in their small way. That was around the COVID year, where fans only a maximum of 25% stadium capacity was allowed at football venues, which meant fans will be unable to watch their beloved cub. the pandemic took a toll on a host of things in the country, including football but the management to help the club financially aided the club to rake in huge financial dividends.

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Kotoko, one of the biggest franchises, if not the biggest in the country birthed over eight decades ago, having seen several boards and several managerial changes cannot boast of their stadium. This sad state had been hanging over the heads of its numerous predecessors, so it was least surprising that Nana Yaw Amponsah with the backing of the board wanted to change that narrative. He wanted the club to have its own, one it could call home, away from the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, which it had used for numerous decades.
In one of his many interviews, he remarked, “I only need 100, 000 committed supporters and I will build a stadium for Kotoko in 18 months,”
“Each of the 100,000 committed fans should contribute USD 100 each. That is 10 million USD”. he ended.
But it seems that dream of helping the club to get its stadium of a sort like, Aduana Stars (Nana Agyemang Badu II), Karela United (Crosby Awuah Memorial Park), Samartex (Nsenkyire Park), GoldStars (Duns Park) may not be realized. They may have made inroads with the Adako Jachie project but it’s far from a finished article, hopefully, the board and management will do the needful.

The pride of playing in the African Champions League was one of many joys for several clubs on the domestic scene even though it had its burdens and difficulties but the benefits of playing in Africa’s elite club competition were endless. Some years ago, Ghana had four slots in that competition, two each for the Champions League and the Confederations Cup competition but that dream has tailed off, Ghanaian clubs, shy off considering the financial strain it posed on them (owners, bankrollers), that trend saw the country’s slot for Africa, whittled down to two, one each of the respective competitions. The Porcupine Warriors fell short of the mark of advancing to the group stages, falling to Al Hilal and later to RC Kadiogo (Burkina Faso) in two separate seasons, disappointing for the fans after the management and board had promised to help restore the club to its glory days on the Africa font.
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I for one thought the current board/management would be maintained to continue what they had started because the one too many start-stop projects was becoming a regular feature with the club but in the wisdom of the club owner he has taken his club back from his employees.
Hopefully, whoever is charged to oversee the running of the club picks up the positives and continue the projects, and initiatives the previous administration started.