Playing in Africa is difficult but Okwuhu United will survive – Sannie Darra

Public Relations Officer for the Ghana Football Association, Ibrahim Sanni Darra has revealed that playing in Africa competitions in not an easy task but Okwahu United will play in Africa and survive if only they win the MTN FA Cup.

The Parliamentary Candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Eastern Region, Bryan Acheampong has lift the club to another level after taken over as the owner of the club. Okwuhu United will now play Liberty Professionals in the Semifinals of the MTN FA Cup competition at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Sunday.

Okwuhu United are in the Zone 3 of the GN Division One League. After 20 matches played, Okwuhu have won nine, lose four and drawn seven with 34 points at the 4th position.

Ghanaians clubs have consistently suffered and have threatened to pull out of the competition because it is not easy to play in CAF Competitions. The sole representative of Ghana in this year’s CAF Confederation Cup, Medeama SC have knocked the doors of the GFA and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to come to their aid because they are suffering financially.

Sannie speaking on Sports World on Asempa FM, he said, “Playing in Africa is not easy but Okwuhu United will play in Africa and survive if they win the MTN FA Cup and there is no doubt about that.

“Maybe many people don’t know the owner of the Club, to me he is one of the richest personalities in the country. He is building a hotel with a capacity of 600 rooms at Nkawkaw and it has never happen before so I person is able to build a hotel like this can’t he play in Africa Competitions. Sannie demanded.

“Look at the transformation the club is getting now, for me it will help Ghana football very much because we will have traditional teams who will lead us to the right channel. If you look at some of clubs in Ghana now, some are being owned by individuals and some are being owned by partnership but still they have huge supporters. The only problem for people who own the team is that, playing in Africa is very difficult and when you play at home you might not get the supporters to deduct you debt but comparing Okwuhu United, they have a huge supporters and when they play one match, they can deduct their debt in just a match.

He continued, “You can compare King Fisal and Berekum Chelsea that if they are playing in Africa, where will they get their home support from but the only thing that has made Kotoko and Hearts of Oak to reign is that, anytime they are playing in Africa competitions they have their home supporters supporting the club.

“I have known the owner of Okwuhu United (Bryan Acheampong) for a very long time now, when he was going to buy the team, I was the first person he called and ask me to if there is anything I can tell him and I told him the problems and the challenges of Okwuhu United and the plans he have now, he is going to build a new stadium for the club and I know he will do it.

“Gradually, he is considering some lands that belongs to the sate but have been turned into pitches but he want to take a lease because he doesn’t want to do it and at the end there will be problems. Officials came from Turkey to give him ideas and he wants to build a youth team for the club as well and he is doing his possible best for the club to even go on vacation on abroad as some teams have been doing it and he is ready to implement all these ideas.

“From beginning of next season, the team will sign a professional apparel contract. When the team is travelling, they will wear a formal jersey throughout. There is no doubt that there are problems but we can’t discuss it in public. Even before he appointed Mohammed Gago as the head coach of the club, he should have made some consultations because Gago was supposed to have appear on the ethics committee. He is highly educated person, highly smart so nobody should underrate him.

Sannie concluded that we should help get some of our traditional clubs back on their feet in other to make our league more attractive.