Hearts protest against Kotoko

Accra, Aug 11, GNA - Defending League Champions, Accra Hearts of Oak on Monday lodged a protest against the behaviour of Kumasi Asante Kotoko in their 13th week league encounter on Sunday at the Kumasi Sports Stadium.

Hearts said they were protesting against what they called serious incidents that took place before, during and after the game which endangered the Hearts team. The club therefore asked the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to punish Kotoko accordingly to prevent future recurrence.

The protest said keys to the visitors dressing room at the Kumasi Stadium was collected by officials of Kotoko three days to the match from workers of the National Sports Council (NSC).

It said on match day while the team remained unavailable to emerge with the team officials on the pitch as required in the article 23(5a) of the GFA's rules, Kotoko, in contravention of article 23(5d) used an unapproved routes to enter the pitch.

According to the release which was signed by Ashford Tetteh Oku, administrative manager of the club, the Kotoko captain failed to inspect the cards of the Hearts team thereby forcing the forth referee and one other assistant to do so.

Hearts explained that this was contrary to the article 16(2) and that they were suspicious that there were ulterior motives on the part of the Kotoko officials hence their refusal to go to the dressing room. The release said Hearts players were greeted with missiles and packages of water during warm up and that despite assurance by security agencies at the technical meeting that no ball boys would be allowed behind their goal post, some boys were positioned there and occasional distracted the attention of their goalkeeper.

The statement stated that during recess some Kotoko supporters attacked the Hearts bench and sprinkled urine on officials and players of the club of which the attention of the forth referee plus some security men were drawn to.

Finally Hearts said the team's bus carrying players and officials was stoned after the game and that in the process Laryer Kingston was hit by a stone opening a gash in his face which had to be stitched. The club said it took pains to catalogue the incidents not only to support their position but to alert the authorities about 'these act of violence which need to be visited with serious punishment since there is a limit to which we can restrain our supporters in the wake of such an uncivil and unprovoked attacks" 11, Aug, 03