Hearts of Oak NCC Chairman Elvis Hesse Herman discloses reasons behind the club’s struggle in the ongoing league campaign

Defending Champions of the ongoing 2021/2022 premier league title Accra Hearts of Oak have endured a rocky season so far since the commencement of the league season, have won less than 10 of the 24 matches played so far, and Chairman Herman has now revealed the reasons behind their struggle.

According to Elvis Herman Hesse Jnr, Chairman of the National Chapters Committee of the club, the reasons behind the club’s struggle in the league is due to its participation in the CAF inter club competitions which preceded the Ghana Premier League (GPL) season.

Hearts of Oak, having won both the premier league and the FA Cup in the 2020/21 season, qualified to be Ghana’s sole representatives in the 2021/22 CAF Champions league competition. They started the season with the Champions League, but failed to make it into the group stage and crashed out at the preliminary stages.

The team progressed from the first round of the preliminary stage after elimnating CI Kamsar, and were drawn against Wydad Athletic Club of Morocco. Hearts of Oak won the first leg by 1-0 in Accra, but fell to a humiliating 6-1 defeat in Morocco in the reverse encounter, crashing out of the Champions League with 6-2 aggregate defeat.

Dropping into the Confederations Cup, Hearts of Oak faced Algerian side JS Saoura, but failed to go past the North African side after suffering a 4-0 drubbing in the second leg following a 2-0 win they picked in the first leg in Accra. The Phobians then suffered elimination from the Confederation Cup competition with a 4-2 aggregate defeat.

Having turned their focus on the then young season league, it was expected that the Phobians would turn things around and put their title defence on the course, but their struggle has kept running throughout the season, making them currently sit 6th in the league table with 36 points out of 24 matches, trailing leaders Asante Kotoko by 16 points.

Asked what has been the cause of the team’s inability to replicate the last season performance that won them treble – the league, the FA Cup and the Super Cup, Elvis Herman attributed it to their participation in the CAF inter club competitions.

“We are doing our best in the league, we are the defending champions of the league, but I think the main reason why we’ve had some difficulties is because of the African competition we played in,” Elvis told ghanasportspage.com on Tuesday.

“I think the time we played Africa and the time we returned to the league has affected our output a little. But still, we will do our best to make sure we defend the league title, and I think gradually the boys are playing good unlike when we started the league. Now I think they are playing good football and we are on course – everything will be fine”, he concluded.