Accra, Dec. 12, GNA - Accra Hearts of Oak on Tuesday pulled out of the 2007 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Confederations Cup. A statement signed by Mr Thomas Okine, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the club said they arrived at this unfortunate point after the Professional League Board (PLB) and Ghana Football Association (GFA) decided to register them for the Confederations Cup instead of their preferred choice, the Champions League.
This came up after the GFA and the PLB met with CEO's and representatives of premier league clubs to discuss outstanding issues arising from the ongoing 2006/2007 Onetouch league.
The statement said the club had no alternative than to pull out after the GFA decided to go ahead with decisions agreed on at the July 2006 Congress, which stated that the first two clubs on the league table as at November 30 2006, would be entered for the CAF Champions League, whilst the third and fourth go for the Confederations Cup.
Hearts as at November 30, were third on the table behind Kotoko and Ashantigold even though they have one match in hand against Tema Youth. The Hearts CEO said since it is no fault of theirs that they have an outstanding match against Tema Youth as ordered by the Appeals Committee of the GFA, they feel they should be allowed to play before the final list for Africa is completed.
The statement said that in spite of the extension granted by CAF, bringing the submission date to December 15, the replay should have been allowed to take place.
It said with the outcome of the above outstanding encounter unknown, it was necessary that the paramount interest of Ghana football took precedence over all other considerations.
Accordingly the GFA decided to use the table as at the 12th week matches to declare Ghana's representatives. The statement said other factors like the absence of a fixed venue and its associated cost, the absence of definite sponsorship guarantee from the GFA and government were some of the reasons that necessitated their pulling out.
It said for now, Hearts will concentrate on repackaging the team and re-strategize for future continental games and concentrate on the remaining matches of the 2006/07 league with the limited resources available to ensure a place in the 2008 Champions league slot come April 2007.
