Hearts of Oak board members have responded former manager Martin Koopman’s claim that he was told not to use seven players.
The board branded Koopman’s statement as ‘distasteful’, citing that the manager was solely mandated for player selection.
“The Board finds Koopman’s statement very distasteful. The Board has never said to any coach or Koopman that he shouldn’t use the players he mentioned.
“Koopman was solely in charge of player selection in the team. He was given full responsibility.”
The board clarified that Koopman worked with 28 players with the exception of two players who were injured.
“On Koopman’s player selection allegation, we want to put on record that by the time we played our seventh league match, Koopman had used 28 players except two who were on the injury list.
The board in a press conference held today, December 4, 2023, stated that Koopman appeared to be mature and experienced, hence, his appointment as Hearts manager.
“We went in for Koopman because we were looking for a coach with maturity and a coach with experience. He came up on top of the list of coaches before he was hired.”
Martin Koopman made his claims in an interview with ghanasportsonline, when he listed the players the board barred him from using.
“There are seven players they told me not to use in the competition. It was a day before our opening game.
“They named three players, but they later changed it to seven players (Annan, Korsah, Esso, Albert Eonde, Salifu, Seidu, and Attah). They told me not to use them because they don’t believe them and they cannot help me in the competition,” he said.
