A former chief executive of Asante Kotoko, Jarvis Peprah, says the suspected bad blood between the club’s board chairman, Kwame Kyei, and the CEO, Nana Yaw Amponsah, contributed to the club’s disappointing performance in the just-ended season.
He said the ongoing media war between the two officials was affecting the club’s image and undermining their progress, and, has, therefore, called on Kotoko’s Life Patron and sole shareholder, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to call the CEO and the board chairman to order ahead of the upcoming football season.
For Mr Peprah, the Asantehene must dissolve the Kotoko management and board of directors if the two heads fail to address their differences, as their impasse threatens the club’s success in the upcoming season.
“The bad blood between Kwame Kyei and Nana Yaw is no secret because Nana Yaw has complained about it on air on countless occasions. The Kotoko board is also aware but they have not done anything to address the friction. So if they are not doing anything to address this conflict, then I am pleading with Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to bring in new people to manage Kotoko,” Mr Peprah told Daily Graphic.
Explaining, he noted that two weeks ago, the Kotoko CEO was interviewed on Accra-based Asempa FM where he confirmed to the host, Osei Bonsu, that bad blood existed between him and the Kotoko board chairman. He added that the friction had deepened so much that he would need over two hours to explain why their relationship was not cordial.
“For the Board chairman to allow the sports panel on his radio station to castigate the CEO without restraining them is undermining the development of Kotoko, which is far bigger than the two personalities, hence my plea to Otumfuo to sack them and establish a new board,” Mr Peprah explained.
“I cannot understand why the Board Chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and the club’s CEO should be at loggerheads while the entire board looks on and refuse to address such a sensitive issue undermining the club’s progress,” he observed.
The ex-Kotoko CEO also took the club’s Portuguese coach, Mariano Barreto, to task for using public platforms to attack the club without any reprimand by his employers.
“If we have a coach who has now been using public platforms to attack his club without the board and the management team doing anything about it, then there is something seriously wrong with the present Kotoko management and it needs immediate action.”
Mr Peprah said also that he could not come to terms with why quality players in Ghana were shying away from Kotoko, while some key players in the team were also refusing to renew their contracts.
“At the moment, management should have been recruiting new players to strengthen the team ahead of the 2021/22 football season but nothing has been done so far.
“Many of our best players are also leaving the club at a time that we need their services most but due to the bad blood between the CEO and the Board chairman, management is not doing anything to recruit new players
