Hearts lodge complaint to Malian FA and CAF

Accra Hearts Sporting Club Limited on Saturday, March 6, lodged an official complaint to the Malian Football Federation and the Match Commissioner on the attack of their players and officials by supporters and some officials of the Malian team during their training session on Friday.

The attack occurred when the team went for their afternoon training session at the stadium, but they were prevented from embarking any training session by the supporters and officials of Stade Malien with a lot of flimsy excuses.

This generated into a form of argument as supporters of the home team launched an attack on the visitors with Coach Ernst Middendorp, assistant coach, Ofei Ansah and other officials including Sabahn Quaye and Tommy Okine receiving a fair share of the beatings from the angry fans.

Mr Mathew Narh Doe, an official of the Ghana Football Association GFA and a member of the contingent told the GNA Sports that an official report was made to the Malian FA and the match commissioner at a technical committee meeting held on Saturday afternoon.

According to Mr Doe, the is expected that the match commissioner, Doudou Sene, a Senegalese who is also a representative of CAF will make the necessary report to the Confederation for action to be taken. Mr Doe said they are expecting CAF to take immediate action on the incident since it does not augur well for the development of the game on the continent.

Coach Ernst Middendorp said the attack is a calculated one to kill the morale of his boys but stated that he had psyched up his boys well and believed it will not have any effect on them.

He said experienced ones like Dan Quaye, Osei Kuffour, Amankwah Mireku, Lawrence Adjei have gone through similar situations, hence they can make do with it but added that the likes of Frank Kornu, Loius Agyeman and Prince Tagoe who are new in the game are being given the needed guidance.

He however condemned the attack saying, " This will have attracted severe sanction in Europe".

Coach Middendorp added that, "there is a saying that states that " you earn what you work for; therefore, the Malian team must realize that they will earn what they are working for now when they come to Ghana.