Asante Kotoko have officially withdrawn their request sent to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to allow them to move their Champions League (CL) home matches from the Accra Sports stadium to the Aliu Mahama sports stadium in Tamale.
Prior to the start of the 2020/2021 football season, the Porcupine Warriors chose the Aliu Mahama sports stadium in Tamale as their second home venue for the season with the Accra sports stadium as their first, and received the confirmation from CAF. However, they later to CAF seeking permission to move their Champions League games from Accra to Tamale.
Just when the numerous supporters of the club in Tamale are anxiously waiting for positive news from CAF concerning the club’s request, officials of Asante Kotoko have decided to rescind the decision to move to the Aliu Mahama stadium, citing footballing reasons.
“Our CAF Champions League game, the first leg tie that Asante Kotoko Sporting Club will play against Al Hilal Omdurman in Ghana will come off on the 23rd of December at the Ohene Djan sports stadium”, Director of Communications for Asante Kotoko, Moses Antwi Benefo confirmed in an interview with ghanasportspage.com.
As reported last week by ghanasportspage.com, Mr. Benefo confirmed that Asante Kotoko had written to CAF seeking to move the game against Al Hilal to the Aliu Mahama stadium in Tamale, but later withdrawn the decision due to footballing reasons.
“It is true. We submitted that arrangement (to play the game against Al Hilal in Tamale) to CAF through the FA that we would like to play our Champions League [against Al Hilal) at the Aliu Mahama sports stadium in Tamale, but we have withdrawn that request, we will play it at the Ohene Djan sports stadium (in Accra)”, he confirmed.
“It is for footballing and sporting reasons, that is why we didn’t go”, Benefo explained.
Asante Kotoko however holds on to their decision to move their home grounds for the domestic league matches from the Accra sports stadium to the Aliu Mahama sports stadium in Tamale. The club recently submitted a letter with eight pointed reasons to the GFA, explaining further why they want to move their home league matches to Tamale. The two times continental champions are keenly waiting for a response from the GFA, and would be glad to see their request granted.
“As you already know, we have submitted an eight-pointed letter to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) that we want to, for the domestic league, change our home grounds from the Ohene Djan sports stadium to the Aliu Mahama sports stadium. As we speak we have not received any response since we sent that letter to the FA. In the domestic league, we will be very happy if they should allow us to move there”, he added.