Sports

Togbe Afede:Hearts respect coaches

Board Chairman of Hearts of Oak, Togbe Afede XIV, has denied reports of labeling coaches at the club as disrespectful and sacking them unilaterally, even against the will of fans of the club.

Since becoming the majority shareholder of the Rainbow club in 2011, the Togbe Afede XIV board has appointed 18 different coaches, the latest being Samuel Boadu who has signed a three-year deal at the club.

Setting the records straight at the unveiling ceremony of coach Boadu, the board chairman said categorically that “such assertion is not true.”

“We have not labeled coaches as disrespectful in the past as a lot of reasons have been assigned to coaches leaving Hearts. But tried as we always did to present the truth, it had always been conveniently ignored.”

Sighting the Coach Kenichi Yatsuhashi incident, Togbe Afede XIV stated that Yatsuhashi in the middle of the league approached management for a study leave to go and pursue a course of study that would last several weeks.

“Right in the middle of the league with many matches ahead of us, he decided he had to travel to study and insisted that either he left to study and come back or he was resigning.

“We were left with no option because a club like Hearts cannot or could not have allowed its coach to go away for study; it has never happened anywhere,” he stated.

On Coach Frank Nuttal, the board chairman revealed that it was true he had issues with the board for his dealings with some players.

“We want to trust everybody we engage, and we try to establish that trust by delving into the background of the particular person we are engaging and of course having extensive interactions, his behaviour was quiet exceptional, something we had not experienced before, and we do not hope to experience ever again.”

As regards Coach Kostadin Papic, he stated that after a string of poor results over four matches, the coach decided he did not have a solution to turning around the fortunes of the club.

”He had talked about player rebellion against him, division among players, allegations about him being unfair to some players. Those were the things that frustrated him to leave.

”But again, the facts have been ignored and we the board are being blamed,” Togbe Afede XIV further stated.

BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY

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