Martial Art of Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Source: GUSTAN AFARE

Trouble Looms In Ghana Taekwondo Association

(TECHNICAL DIRECTOR RUNS ONE – MAN -SHOW)

Angry members of the Technical Team of Ghana Taekwondo Association and other stake holders are up in arms calling for immediate removal of the Technical Director of the Association, Fred Otu Lartey.

According to usually reliable sources close to the Ghana Taekwondo Association Fred Out Lartey have carved a Kingdom for himself within the Association and virtually runs a “one- man- show” in the affairs of technical direction. And even on fare occasions when he consults anybody on the Technical Direction of the affairs of the Association, he does so with cabal of cronies known as the ‘taekwondo Mafia’ and only deals with them on ‘need to know’ basis. Fed Otu Lartey who is also a Senior Custom Officer is alleged to be managing the Technical affairs of the Ghana Taekwondo Association so poorly that nearly everything under his direction is in disarray and as a result there is always confusion among the leadership and members of the association. The irate technical team members said when the need arose to appoint a coach foreign based Ghanaian players of the game. Fred out single handedly carried out the exercise for his own parochial interest.

In related development some instructors of the Association have threatened to teach Fred Out the rudiments of the game if he does not resign honourably as he is said to have ignored all other stake holders in a decision to use instructors in a previous demonstrative exercise for a pending one, thus promoting only his favourites to the detriments of the game.

The obviously aggrieved members of the technical team have called for the removal of Fred Otu as he does not qualify to hold the office of Technical Director since he only wears a fifth Dan belt for Senior Belt holders of the Association to lead the technical team to prevent the present the trend of affairs which has led the association to take wrong decisions much to the detriment of the advancement of the game, adding that consultation is the essence of sound judgement.

By GUSTAN AFARE