CAF Champs League: Kotoko for camp Sunday

Kumasi Asante Kotoko will start camping on Sunday in preparation towards their first leg African Champions League qualifying match against Barrack Young Controllers (BYC) of iberia at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on February 9, 2014, the acting chief executive of Kotoko, Mr. Samuel Opoku Nti, has said.

As part of their preparations, Kotoko will be actively involved in playing low and high profile friendly matches not only to build the stamina of players, but also to ensure that they have a winning mentality to sail past their Liberian opponents.

“ We will first start playing low profile friendly matches as soon as we start camping before reverting to high profile ones to put our players in the right frame of mind. This will build teamwork among the players for them to overcome the Liberians at our favourite Baba Yara Sports Stadium”. Mr. Opoku Nti explained during the telephone interview  from Kumasi last Wednesday

“Eight of our players are participating in the CHAN tournament in South Africa, so I am certain they will benefit tremendously from the high profile training. What we have to do after their return is to blend them with those at home to have a formidable team”,  he explained further.

On their main target of participating in the 2014 Champions League, Mr. Opoku Nti said like each of the participating teams, their goal was to capture the trophy at stake.

 “Our target is to win the ultimate, not only to bring honour to Manhyia Palace, but also to broaden the smiles  on the faces of our numerous fans who have been waiting for so long to have a glimpse of the Champions League trophy that has eluded them  for decades” he noted..

On the strategy put in place for them to realise their ambition of overcoming the first leg against BYC, he said doing so would reveal their main arsenals to their opponents.

“That will make our opponents know our strength and weakness  for them to prepare adequately for us ,  so I will always keep it secret, “ he explained.

On their budget, he said a Committee established to come out with a budget was yet to meet, hence he could not provide a tentative budget for both matches against BYC.

He, however, assured to make their budget public as soon as the Committee met and declared it.

“We will, however, depend on our sponsors for financial support to enable us prepare adequately for our two-leg matches against BYC. This is because we have always depended on our sponsors during such occasions,” he explained.

Opoku Nti  expressed concern about the dwindling number of fans who watched  their matches of late,“ One of the main challenges is how to bring our fans to the stadium not only to motivate our players to deliver ,but also to enable us recoup the money expended in preparing our boys to honour matches” 

“Playing in Africa is tough, and will get tougher when we qualify to play in the Champions League. That is why we need the fans in their numbers to fill the stadium to enable us achieve our ambition of winning the ultimate” he pleaded.