George Afriyie quits Swedru All Blacks

Agona Swedru, Oct. 1, GNA - The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Swedru Gamba All Blacks FC, Mr George Afriyie on Tuesday announced his decision to quit the Club with immediate effect. Mr Afriyie who announced his resignation at a press conference organized by the Supporters Union of the Club at Agona Swedru said his decision was based on the pressure put on him to single-handedly sponsor and handle affairs of the Club.

He explained that since he took over the Club in 2003, the running of the team had not been easy since he had to pump in a lot of capital to make it a formidable one.

The Chief Executive told the supporters that he has therefore decided that he would no longer be in a position of managing affairs of the team, adding that he decided to call it quits immediately after the Club played its last Premier League match against Kumasi Asante Kotoko at the Agona Swedru Sports Stadium. Mr Afriyie said he did not announce his decision earlier because he wanted a smooth transition that would not affect the running of the Club.

He regretted that players of the Club have not been paid their salaries for the past three months but assured that he was looking for avenues and means to pay them their salary arrears very soon. Before the announcement of the resignation, Mr George Sarfo, Chairman of the Supporters Union had earlier told the CEO at the press conference to decide on whether he would continue to head the Club or not since he, the CEO was said to have announced on an FM station at Agona Swedru that he was no longer the CEO.

Mr Sarfo said the entire supporters as well as the Patron of the Club, Nana Abena Gyimah want the CEO to confirm his resignation by formally writing to the owner of the team about his decision. The supporters Chairman announced that they the supporters are giving the CEO a one-week ultimatum to write officially to the owner of the club about his decision to resign or not and that they would not tolerate any verbal resignation.

Mr Sarfo cautioned that if Mr Afriyie fails to comply with the directive, the Patron of the Club would be compelled to initiate legal action to take over affairs of the Club to save it from collapse. He said this would enable the Life Patron to look for a dynamic and vibrant CEO to see to the settlement of salary arrears of the players and seek for the services of experienced players to beef up the team. Mr Sarfo stated an early settlement of the decision would also enable the Life Patron to re-establish cordial relationship with Mr Iwasa San, the Japanese businessman financing the team and who had earlier seized the Club's bus and gym equipment due to a misunderstanding between him and the CEO.