Accra Hearts of oak at the weekend launched the European edition of her fund raising campaign dubbed "fertilize the oak tree".

Marketing company, Proton Marketing and Management Services, launched the fund raising event on behalf of the club.

In a speech read on his behalf, the club's board chairman, Mr.E.M.Commodore Mensah said, the club found it prudent to give her numerous supporters the unique opportunity of contributing towards the current re-organization of the club.? It is with much regret that we lost in Ethiopia but that is some of the short falls in association football."

Below is the full text of the speech.

The responsibility of running the affairs of Accra Hearts Of Oak Sporting Club Limited was entrusted to a new team at a congress in November 2005.Since then the board of Directors has plunged into serious work. We have taken stock of the achievements, failures and difficulties of the past, and have drawn up programmes and strategies for the future, with the main aim of raising Hearts Of Oak to further heights.

Some of the quality projects undertaken/to be undertaken by the club include, recruitment of players who in the not too distant future will bring in added value to the club, investment in the club?s nursery team, recruitment of Coach Oti Akenteng to head the technical team, and the formation of the share floatation committee, with the responsibility of putting Hearts Of Oak on the stock Market.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentleman of the press, I invite you to recognize the enormity of the financial requirement needed to execute the plans and programmes we have drawn up. In the past our club depended greatly on proceeds from Player Transfer as a major source of revenue. Currently our present circumstances do not permit us to rely on this source, as we need the very same players to prosecute our national; and international obligations. As we speak, now the Premier League is on recess with the prospect of commencing in March 2006, yet we have the responsibility of continuing to pay our players. Our monthly budget for Players, Technical and Administrative staff is over one hundred million cedis. When the League resumes, we will have to cope with the problem of a suitable venue for our home matches. We can foresee a dramatic drop in our gate proceeds as we move from the 30,000 capacity Ohene Djan Stadium to a less than 10,000 capacity stadium. How are we going to finance this shortfall?

It is in a move to explore other source of income that we have invited you here today to the launch of what we call Operation ?Fertilize the Oak Tree?. This is a scheme, which will give all football-loving fans, especially supporters of Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club, in Europe the opportunity to make contributions towards the resuscitation of the finances of the club

Mr. Chairman, ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, under the scheme we expect contributors to pay their money into the Club?s foreign account. The account details are as follows:

COMPANY: ACCRA HEARTS OF OAK SPORTING CLUB LIMITED

BANK: AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT BANK, CEDI HOUSE ACCOUNT NUMBER; 1072010000140

SWIFT CODE: ADNTGHAC

Finally, the contributors will be expected to send the following information to this e-mail address (protonmarketingservices@yahoo.co.uk)

NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR

NAME OF BRANCH WHERE PAYMENT OF CONTRIBUTION WAS EFFECTED DATE OF PAYMENT AND TIME E-MAIL ADDRESS OF CONTRIBUTOR TELEPHONE NUMBER OF CONTRIBUTOR COPIES OF THE PAY-IN SLIPS

Those who will find it very comfortable could post the pay- in- slip to the address below.

77 less street, Manchester, M111NW.

We have grouped the contributors into Four (4) categories namely, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Ordinary depending on how much each contributor pays. The amounts for each category are ? 200, ?100, ?50 and ?30 in corresponding order.

We shall make periodic publications of the contributions in the newspapers/internet and also send Certificates of Recognition to the Platinum and Gold Contributors.

Apart from the financial benefits that we hope to derive from this scheme, we also hope to use the information you provide as basis for compiling bio-data on our supporters at the Club?s Secretariat.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish to assure contributors in particular and the general public at large that we shall fully account for every penny of the funds we generate from this scheme, as well as the other income we will generate for the club.

This is a chance for our supporters to give practical meaning to their commitment to the welfare of the Club. We have this singular opportunity to nourish the Oak Tree so that it bears good fruit. The task ahead is enormous. The potential is great, but we cannot do it alone. Let us all help to fertilize the OAK TREE.

Finally Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentleman of the Press it gives me great pleasure and honour to declare the operation FERTILIZE THE OAK TREE ? EUROPE formally launched.