Venue concerns motivated Arsenal's Africa withdrawal

Accra, Nov. 26, GNA - Berekum Arsenal have attributed their withdrawal from next season's Confederation of African Football (CAF) Club Championship to venue related problems.

The Berekum-based club qualified for the CAF Confederation Cup after placing fourth in last season's premier league, but opted not to participate due to some concerns with key among them being the choice of venue.

Club Chairman Alhaji Yakubu Moro told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Sports that the decision to withdraw from the $3,330,000 prize competition was largely because their Golden City Park was sub-standard and the club was also not financially sound to honour their matches outside home.

"Our park does not meet CAF's requirement and we can't afford to play at a different venue because it will affect our finances," he said. The closet choice of venue would be the Sunyani Coronation Park in Sunyani, but Alhaji Moro maintained fans in the area always root against his club.

"The Sunyani fans are always "against" us. We don't have a large fan-base there and they usually turn up to support our opponents," he added.

Citing an instance, Alhaji Moro said in 2006 the club exited from the third round of the same competition after a 2-0 aggregate loss to Petro Atletico of Angola mainly due to the negative attitude of the Sunyani fans towards Berekum Arsenal.

Bluntly, the Chairman explained that proximity-wise, the choice of the Baba Yara Sports Stadium was not ideal because Kumasi is very far from Berekum adding "and we don't have many fans there too." Moro admitted that financial constraints was an obstacle, but would have been erased with the support of some financial institutions and companies in the Brong Ahafo Region

"We could take loans from banks and pay later, but we wanted to play at own stadium with our fans behind us," he stressed. He announced that his outfit was making frantic efforts at elevating the Golden City Park to CAF standard for future continental assignments.

CAF has announced Sunday, November 30, 2008 as the deadline for confirmation of participation for next year's club championships, and the Arsenal boss says they have long communicated their stand to the Ghana Football Association (GFA). This means that Ghana would have no representation in the second tier club competition after Liberty Professionals had withdrawn earlier. Meanwhile, league champions, Asante Kotoko and Kpando Heart of Lions have confirmed their participation in the CAF-MTN Champions League.