Accra, Feb. 2, GNA - Mr. Richard Oblitei Solomon, an Accra legal practitioner and immediate past chairman of Accra Great Olympics management committee said the Board of Directors of the club has outlived its usefulness and must "pack and go."

In an interview with the GNA Sports on Monday, the former chairman said the Board has nothing to show as their achievement since they were inducted into office in 1993 and it doesn't seem they would be able to do anything after 10 years of failure.

He said though the club was incorporated as a public liability company in 1995 with nine billion shares at 1,000 cedis per share and the company's record shows that shares monies were paid, investigations at the Registrar General's department showed that "nobody paid anything."

The legal practitioner said another illegality, which the board condoned was increasing the number of Board members to 15, whereas the statutes allowed a minimum of five and a maximum of 12.

He said only share holders of the club have the legal authority to increase the number of Board members and the current membership, which is more than seven is not permitted by the company's code because "there has never been a meeting or any resolution of share holders to decide on any business of the club."

Mr. Solomon said the Board initiated moves in 1995 to change the corporate structure of the club and he and Perry Doku were charged to study the documents and make recommendations, but they could not finish the job until he left the management team in 1997.

The legal practitioner said when he became chairman of the club in 2001, the Board revived the idea and he and Doku were once again mandated to pursue the agenda.

"We recommended that the number of Board members should be increased to 10 and that the Council of Patrons, the Supporters Union and the Old Players should be incorporated into the structure of Olympics.

"One other thing that we harped on in our recommendations was that share holding should be a prerequisite for persons who aspire to become directors of the club."

The former chairman said their recommendations were approved at a Board meeting and it was that singular issue that vexed Mr. Seth Ankrah, and fuelled him to "launch a campaign for my removal" because he had no intention of buying shares in the club to make it financially buoyant. He said he believed that if the Board members put their monies into the club as shareholders, they would be compelled to live up to their responsibilities by taking decisions that would help the club to progress.

"I was appalled by the indifference of the Board when one or two members launched attacks on me for doing a job that the entire Board had authorized me to do, a job designed to advance the interest of Olympics, a job that produced recommendations to open up Olympics to share holding and incorporate traditional structures fully into the management of the club."

He said his modest achievement, as chairman of the management committee for three years has been a progressive significant increase in the gate earning of the club and their ability to purchase more players to swell the 14 that they met to 35, adding that when they took over there were only 13 players for their first match.

Mr. Solomon said his wish was to open up the club for people who care to buy shares and sit on the Board to do serious business in the interest of the club, instead idle people occupying positions on the board with intent "to take credit for being on the Board without making any contributions to move the club forward."

He called on the players and supporters of the club to close their ranks and work in harmony to overcome the difficulties the club is going through so that Olympics will continue its redemption march to the top in the coming season.