Kotoko management seeks financial aid from supporters to help Dr. Kwame Kyei pay FIFA fine

Management member of Asante Kotoko, Nana Kwame Dankwah has issued a rallying call to supporters of the Porcupine Warriors, to come to their aid in paying the FIFA fine imposed on the club following transfer breaches against Tunisian club Esperance Sportive de Tunis.

Asante Kotoko have been slapped with a $240,000 fine for illegally registering Ghanaian striker Emmanuel Clottey who was then on the books of the Tunisian club.

FIFA have given Kotoko a deadline of May 10 to pay the money or face stricter sanctions; one of which includes demotion to the lower leagues.

It is in light of this that Nana Kwame Dankwah (who serves as the Greater Accra representative of the club) has made a passionate appeal to Kotoko supporters to assist financially in raising money to support Dr Kwame Kyei.

He told local radio station Asempa FM in an interview that “Yes, we have received the FIFA notice, and we have to act on it.

“I believe that as a Kotoko family which entails management and the supporters, we need to make sure that we support our leader Kwame Kyei, so that we can find a solution to this problem”

“Let’s come together so that we find solutions on how are we going to pay this money”

Nana Kwame Dankwah cited a previous happening in the past when a €99,000 fine was slapped on the club by FIFA for wrongful dismissal of then head coach Hans Dieter Scmidt.

Though the decision to sack the coach was in 2005 during the tenure of Herbert Mensah, the fine had to be paid by the Dr KK Sarpong led administration.

With assistance from the club’s supporters Kotoko were able to raise the money with management topping up eventually.

Nana Kwame Dankwah wants fans to replicate this kind gesture once again.

“Its happened before, during Herbert Mensah’s time when Kotoko wrongfully dismissed Hans Dieter Schmidt, we were slapped with a huge fine”.

“Dr Sarpong was able to do an appeal for funds to raise money which was eventually topped up by management to clear the debt”.

“So I will urge all of us to come together to help clear this current debt.”

Nana Kwame Dankwah has however noted that lessons must be learnt after the dust has settled. He wants the club to stay away from blame games and the moment and focus solely on paying the fine.

“There are issues but I feel its not necessary at this point. Now is not the time to do interrogations and blame games”, he noted.

“Lets focus on clearing the debt first. And when all is sorted we will learn the valuable lessons and avoid similar happenings in the future” he concluded.