Soccer News of Saturday, 24 January 2004

Source: GNA

Olympics supporters up in arms with IMC

Accra, Jan 24, GNA - Supporters of Accra Great Olympics have expressed disgust at the way and manner the "self appointed" Interim Management Committee (IMC) of Seth Ankrah and David Fugah is handling the affairs of the club.

The supporters, numbering about 20, trooped to the offices of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Saturday to present a resolution. The resolution said the supporters are tired of the prevailing state of confusion in the club and would want things to be put in the right way once and for all for the good of Olympics.

Among the six-point resolution presented was that, they are not in favour of the decision of the IMC to dispose of the services of Coach Abdul Aziz, a former player who served the team wholeheartedly as a player and also as a coach.

The supporters led by Benjamin Adjei, Alhaji Abdul Rauf and Nii Moi Addo, said they are not against the appointment of Mohammed Ahmed Polo as coach but Aziz should continue to serve in a technical capacity. Last week the IMC of Olympics appointed Mohammed Ahmed Polo, former national star and also a former player of the club as the new Technical Head in place of the caretaker coach Abdul Aziz who was relieved of his post sometime ago.

The resolution also asked Seth Ankrah, David Fugah, Dr A N Arthur, Frank Davies Stephen Nmashie and Nii Ankrah not to step a foot on the training grounds of the club again whilst at the same time calling on all supporters to wear red armbands to the training grounds on Tuesday to register their protest on the prevailing state of affairs. All stakeholders of the club were called upon by the resolution to dissolve the present Board of Directors and appoint a new one in addition to a new Management Committee to run the affairs of the club. The resolution also asked that members of the present board and the previous IMC should not be part of the new board or management committee to give Olympics a fresh start.

In an interview with the GNA Sports, Benjamin Adjei, who is also a member of the Welfare Committee of the club said Olympics had not achieved anything for the past 15 years as a result of this "protracted power struggle".

He said Olympics would be 50 years old this year and is important that all these disputes are done away with once and for all to enable the club have the peace to regain its glorious past.

"When we were growing up, Olympics was the third force in the country and was a force to be reckoned with, but now what do we see, teams like Liberty, King Faisal and Goldfields have all over taken us because of this never ending power struggle."

He said there was an urgent need to restructure the Board since only four of the original shareholders who constituted the board are still alive and that the present one does not form a quorum. Mr Adjei said the welfare committee have been able to scout among the Olympics fraternity with the needed resources to help revive the fortunes of the team but have to wait in the wings because of the present state of affairs.