SuperSport.com understands that Hearts of Oak are unhappy over alleged bias being
shown against them at junior national team level.
According to Hearts insiders, the assumption of key national team jobs
by pro-Kotoko elements has started affecting selection.
SuperSport.com has confirmed that young Hearts midfielder Ashitey Ollenu was sacked
from the Black Satellites camp last Saturday at the team's
camping base in Adenta for reasons that remain unclear.
The player, in an interview, sounded bemused and did not understand why he had been
sacked.
"I don't know what happened that day but when we were told that the
training that the training programme for the day had been shifted to
9am, we all went back to our rooms. I came back only to be told that the bus had
already left," Ollenu complained.
Ashitey Ollenu also said two other players had been sacked as well from
the camp, but SuperSport.com has been informed that two have been called back to the
team's training at the Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School
Park in Ghana's capital.
One of the players in Inter Allies striker Fatau Safiu, who revealed why he had been
axed from the team. "They said we did not train under the
directives of the technical team but when we asked they did not give any concrete
reasons."
Anti-Hearts agenda?
Wednesday's edition of Hearts News, the official club newspaper,
postulates a conspiracy theory to explain the player's expulsion for the team.
"Further investigations conducted by Hearts News can reveal that this
unfortunate event was a potential conspiracy move aimed at eliminating
Hearts' representation in the Satellites team, starting with Ollenu,"
the paper alleges.
The paper does not name how this intends to be done or if any patterns
have emerged since the team was given to former Kotoko, Maxwell Konadu.
But the paper strongly hints that the ascent of Konadu to the Satellites job is
behind "elimination of Hearts representation" in the team.
Konadu himself has been unavailable for comment, although SuperSport.com found no
evidence of wrongdoing on Ollenu's part after several checks
with other technical members of the team.
The Satellites are currently camping in Prampram ahead of their first
leg of the qualifiers against Uganda in three days,w which will be a
tussle for a place in next year's Africa Youth Championship in Algeria.
All the qualifiers
Guinea - Burkina Faso
Morocco - Gambia
DR Congo - Mauritius
Sierra Leone - Cameroon
Rwanda - Mali
Lesotho - Zambia
Niger – Senegal
Benin – Ivory Coast
Tanzania – Nigeria
Congo – South Africa
Zimbabwe – Angola
Egypt - Kenya
