Asante Kotoko have been barred from making any new player signings for the next year, life patron Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has instructed.
The development was revealed as the club’s new board convened for the first time on Tuesday.
The Kumasi-based side is arguably Ghana ‘s biggest club and the most successful in the history of the Premier League with 23 titles.
"Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has directed that the club should not recruit any new player for at least a season," chief of staff of the Manhyia Palace, Kofi Badu, said. The Manhyia Palace is the seat of Otumfuo.
"The reason is to temporarily stop the player attrition rate and enable us to work with the current crop of players, who the Asantehene thinks have the quality to push the club to the top."
A new nine-member Kotoko board was announced last month.
The unit is led by Kwame Kyei, who has been at the helm of affairs for the last three years.
Jude Arthur (Board Chairman for Ghana Commercial Bank), Kwadwo Boateng Gyamfi (Board Chairman Ghana EXIM Bank), Kwasi Osei Ofori (Chairman Erdmark Group/ CEO Rocksure Mining Ltd), Lawyer Kwamina Mensah (Corporate Lawyer), Alhaji Lamine (Businessman), Joseph Yaw Adu (Retired Director of Sports at Kwame Nkrumah University Science and Technology), Baffour Kwame Kusi (Otumfuo’s Ankobeahene), and Evelyn Nsiah Asare (Acting Head of Sports at Sunyani Technical University) complete the board.
"His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehe, has constituted a new board of directors for Asante Kotoko Sporting Club and charged it with an ambitious task to rebuild the Asante Kotoko brand not only for its performance on the sporting field but as a viable economic entity," a statement from Manhyia Palace said in announcing the new board.
”The Board will be the highest decision-making body of the club, responsible to the sole shareholder for policy formation and active oversight over the management, development, financial control, technical direction and performance of the club. ”Against the backdrop of recent disquiet among stakeholders and without prejudice to the outcome of the ongoing Prof. Lydia Nkansah Committee, His Majesty has tasked the Board to rebuild the Asante Kotoko SC brand both for its performance on the sporting field and as a viable and self-sustaining economic entity able ultimately to reclaim its pre-eminent position among the elite clubs of Africa.”
Last month, Kotoko almost copped a transfer ban by Fifa for breaching player transfer rules in the signing of Ghana […]
