Afranie wants B. A United pardoned

Accra, June 18, GNA - Emmanuel Kwesi Afranie, head coach of B. A. United has appealed to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to wave off one of the three-match ban imposed on the club early this year due to crowd violence.

Coach Afranie explained that the ban could worsen the already precarious financial position of the club and possibly exterminate it. The GFA also imposed a three million fine on the Sunyani-based club for crowd violence in their match against Accra Hearts of Oak last season at Sunyani.

Coach Afranie told the GNA Sports that the club had demonstrated enough remorse and played two home matches away from home, paid the 3,000 fine and said, "it is only fair that the GFA grants our appeal for pardon".

He said recently some clubs, which committed worse offences, were pardoned just after playing one match away from home and expressed the hope that the GFA would pardon B.A United.

Coach Afrani said the club lost all its three matches in the novelty league partly because of the home ban.

He said the club honoured its two home matches in Kumasi and Obuasi respectively, which depleted the club's coffers and affected the team's build-up.

Coach Afrani said the fact that the club is only informed of its new home venue few days before the match makes the punishment quite unbearable.

He also attributed the team's poor performance partly to the factionalism, which nearly tore the team apart. The Coach cited that the club honoured its first Zone A match against Kumasi Asante Kotoko with just 13 regular players because the playing body especially the old and experienced ones belonged to a different faction.

"But the players have now resolved to back the officials to sack any such recalcitrant player whose commitment is questionable," coach Afranie told the GNA Sports.

He urged all the players to close their ranks and support management to enable the club bounce back into the zone A league title contention.

Asked whether the factionalism does not threaten his job, the coach answered in the negative saying that he has the support of all the nine directors.