Six times Ghana Premier League winner Daniel (Dan) Quaye is peeved by the current situation at Accra Hearts of Oak as the club has gone over a decade without a premier league title.
Accra Hearts of Oak holds the record as the only club to have won the Ghana Premier League for six consecutive times (1997-2002), but Dan Quaye’s former employers have not won the trophy since they last won it in the 2008/2009 season and Dan Quaye has blamed the trophy drought on administrative lapses among other factors under the Togbe Afede XIV led administration.
Accra Hearts of Oak, born from the Asafoatse Nettey’s family 108 years ago (set to be 109 years old by November this year), was initially known to be one of the traditional clubs in Ghana, with the ownership traditionally attributed to its supporters. Until 2011, the club was competing at the continental level, winning most of the domestic league, one CAF Champions League, a Confederation Cup, a CAF Super Cup and not forgetting the Ghana FA Cup.
However, in 2010, Board of Directors of the club, under the chairmanship of Mr. E. M Commodor-Mensah, decided to take the club to the stock exchange for shares flotation with the motive of “restoring financial stability” to the club. In February 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Hearts of Oak’s application to go onto the stock exchange for shares flotation. Reacting to the approval, the then Chairman of the Board of Directors of the club, Mr. E. M. Commodor-Mensah is quoted in a club statement, saying, “The flotation which is said to be probably the first of its kind in Africa, has huge prospects of restoring financial stability to the Club to enable it to invest in recruitment of top players and modern sports infrastructure”.
After the shares flotation, Togbe Afede XIV, current President of the National House of Chiefs and President of the Asogli Traditional Area, emerged the majority shareholder and has since remained the bankroller of Hearts of Oak till date.
However, the administration of the above mentioned King, tried as he must have, has seen the club reduced to the lowest level in terms of winning lures, having failed to win a single league trophy nor the FA Cup. Hearts of Oak, under the Togbe era, can only boast of ceremonial trophies and now the six (6) times league winner with the club, Dan Quaye has accused the revered King of hijacking the club to himself, disregarding past management members and former players who have the football know-how to help the club sail back to its glory days. To him, Accra Hearts of Oak’s inability to win trophies for the past ten (10) years is as a result of bad administration of the Togbe led administration.
“It’s because the kind of people who are running the club”, Dan Quaye told ghanasportspage.com in an exclusive interview. “The Hearts of Oak, it doesn’t belong to Togbe, the club belongs to supporters but now it’s him who has hijacked the club, so I think the shares they floated did not help Hearts of Oak, because I feel that when we won the Champions League and everything we won, we did it with hunger. So I feel the shares they floated is very wrong, like why don’t [Asante] Kotoko float shares, that’s why Hearts of Oak and [Great] Olympics are suffering, Olympics are also suffering partly because of the shares they floated”, Dan Quaye explained.
Pushed to explain what he meant by Togbe having hijacked Accra Hearts of Oak, Dan explained that the majority shareholder has no regard for the past management members who achieved a lot for the club, and the players who won lures for the club are prevented from coming close to the club. He insisted that the present managemnt of the club are envious of the past management, wanting to do as they did but do not have what it takes to.
“Is he not the majority shareholder of the club, he is the bankroller of the club, and the mistake he is making is that the he has no regard for the old management and the players who won glories for the club too they don’t want us to come near the club so how can the team progress? When you go to Europe, Chelsea, Manchester [United] and the rest the senior players are able to share their opinion on the running of the club but at Hearts of Oak it’s like when you go there you are like Satan for them”, he alleged.
In his opinion, the Hearts of Oak under former Chairman Harry Zakour administration is over hundred per cent better than that under Togbe Afede XIV.
Dan Quaye played for Hearts of Oak for about nine years where he won six premier league titles, the CAF Champions League, CAF Confederation Cup, CAF Super Cup and twice won the Ghana FA Cup.
