Dr. Randy Abbey, a former Accra Hearts of Oak management member, has expressed discontent with the club’s attitude to the ongoing GHALCA G6 competition, while the senior team is still in preseason, the club granted the opportunity to the youth team.
The BetPawa Premier League is expected to kick off on the 09th of September, 2022, but a champion of champions’ fixture between arch rivals Kumasi Asante Kotoko on the 05th of September will be a curtain raiser ahead of the 2022/2023 season.
Hearts of Oak have qualified for the Ghana League Club Association (GHALCA) preseason tournament, which is used by clubs competing in continental events to prepare their teams for the competition for which they have qualified.
But the technical team at Hearts of Oak gave this premium platform to the juvenile team instead of the senior side that will play in the CAF Confederation Cup and the BetPawa Premier League.
Dr. Abbey, a former Phobia fraternity management member, believes that Hearts of Oak disrespected the competition by selecting unproven players. He believes that his former club should have pulled out of the competition, as Kumasi Asante Kotoko did.
Hearts of Oak, who have played in two games so far, are eliminated from the competition following humiliating losses to Medeama FC and Berekum Chelsea, respectively, during which they gave up seven goals and scored just one goal.
The former member of management spoke with Original FM in Accra, a radio station run by Ignite Media, the same company that owns Metro TV.
He emphasised the state in which the technical team has undermined the competition organised by GHALCA, Dr. Abbey said, “You don’t disrespect your team and tradition this way. You don’t disrespect an association this way. You don’t disrespect your fans this way.”
He emphasised the impact of not fielding the senior team in addition to the competition’s goal of preparing the clubs for continental assignments, he stated, “Hearts of Oak’s participation in the GHALCA Top 6 has no relevance for their preparation for Africa, absolutely no relevance, because the two games that they have played, the team that has been used for the two games, will be nowhere near the African squad. Now, incidentally, the same Hearts of Oak are playing friendly matches using senior players.”
