By: Jerome Otchere

Date: 19-09-11

Executive Chairman, Dr. K. K. Sarpong last Friday inaugurated a 3-member committee at the club’s secretariat in Kumasi to look into the crisis that has plagued the Ashanti Regional Circles Council. The committee is to come out with recommendations that will help the effective organisation of the Kotoko supporters’ group. Below is an edited text of the Executive Chairman’s address at the all important programme.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I spoke to the emerging leadership and requested that nobody make any comment on the supporters’ front till after today; for us to have some eminent people going into the matter and resolving it once and for all! I want to thank the new group for at least, respecting my request! I have heard that there have been further commentaries on radio. Of course, if you give yourselves to the radio commentators they will knock your heads together and make sure there is confusion, so that they can ply their trade.

What we are witnessing today should be the end of all these petty squabbles. At the end of it all, when the matter is settled, we will remain one body with a common purpose and a common destiny with nothing but to serve Asante Kotoko and see the progress of our dear team. I want to share something with you. Until last year, I was an ordinary supporter, a lover of football; then I got involved in football management. I can tell you today that it has been a very enriching experience for me, because I have seen the industry to be a complex one, something that people’s hearts and soul depend on.

Indeed when matches are lost, you know the effect; and when matches are won, nobody should tell you the joy that come to people! I consider the supporters as an important wing of the club. It is the case world over! If you can get about 100,000 filling the stadium at Nou Camp to watch one match, it should tell you that the game is a religion. Indeed Asante Kotoko is a special religion! For that matter, we must put our house in order and make sure matters which are crooked are straighten up for us to get peace and support the team so that we can win matches and bring joy to our people in the coming season and the years to come.

I am sure you are witnesses to the fact that a lot is being done for the club. This is not the time, and I have said this in my radio commentary; this is not the time for us to have a divided house. In unity we stand; when we are divided we are going to split apart! As we move into the new season, which is just a few weeks away, we need all the supporters. We need unity to rally behind the team, especially the new boys we have brought into the team.

The Board of Directors the club has looked at the matter. They believe it is in the right direction for us to get some eminent personalities to see whether they can go into the matter and come out with words of wisdom which will guide us all. The people we have selected are honourable people. Honourable Freddy Amponsah, who is going to be the chairman of the three-man committee, he is a politician; of course he was a colleague at GHANA COCOBOD where he worked in various capacities – in the personnel function as well as the Public Relations function.

He ended up being the former Regional Manager of Ashanti Region, which is about the biggest region in the COCOBOD. He later became the Municipal Chief Executive of my own area, Offinso South Municipality. I know Mr. Amponsah very well! I have no doubt about his fairness. That is why I sought for him. He is going to chair the three-man committee, to go into this thorny matter. I believe he is going to bring his rich administrative experience as well as PR experience, political experience, and indeed Kotoko experience as a past chairman of Powerful Circle 20!

The other two members are Marie-Loiuse Simmons – a Lawyer by profession, and Mr. Kwaku Nsiah Yeboah. Marie-Loiuse Simmons is a State Attorney at the Attorney General’s department. We cannot have a better choice. She has heard about Kotoko; she does not know much about football, so she is going to be very independent. That is one of the solid reasons which informed our choice of her membership. She is going to be the member-secretary of the committee.

Last but not the least is Mr. Kwaku Nsiah Yeboah. He is a building and road contractor, domiciled in Kumasi. I have known him for so many years at the University of Ghana, Legon. Kwaku is a mathematician, a statistician and a physicist! You know scientist; a straight line is a straight line! No curve no bend! The shortest point between two points is a straight line. You cannot go anywhere. I think we have a wonderful team. It is a good committee.

We want them to report to us by the end of the month because we have no time to waste. The league starts on the 9th of next month. I want to make sure by 2nd or 3rd we will make a pronouncement on the matter. I want us to avoid petty squabbles. We are one family. It is a very interesting family. We do not know how to use the numbers we have.

In mathematics we call something critical mass. If you are an economist, you can use critical mass to promote business. I keep on telling you that with your membership if you organise yourselves well, let us say we have 2 million members and let us say each member contributes GH¢10 that gives you, GH¢20 million. We can start a bank the next day!

But we do not seem to know how to use the numbers we have. We only want to use the organisation to destroy ourselves and destroy the institution, Kotoko! We are not looking at the positive aspect of the organisation. The Circles or the supporters’ union can be a powerful tool against which some commercial ventures can be developed. We have to look at that. We are only looking at how to fight; how to quarrel and destroy Kotoko. That will be unacceptable so far as I remain as the Executive Chairman of the Asante Kotoko.

I want everybody to be on board. I trust the lady and gentlemen will do us a good honour and come out with recommendations which will be watertight and everybody will be happy so that we can drive our club forward. Fabulous! It is the best you can have! Why should the supporters front crack, it shouldn’t! We should mend it now! We are starting with this august committee. On this note, ladies and gentlemen, I deem the committee inaugurated.