Frimpong Manso: Tony's interest in Ghana football died years ago

Former Asante Kotoko and Black Stars defender, Frimpong Manso, has revealed that Tony Yeboah’s interest in helping to develop football talents in the country died five years ago through biased officiating against the defunct Kumasi-based Yegoala Football Club.

In an exclusive interview with Graphic Sports Online in Kumasi, Frimpong Manso, who was a close friend of Yeboah and partnered him to form the club, disclosed that “Tony’s interest in Ghana football died years back and nothing can resurrect it anymore.

“I’m saying this because I know him very well and since he abandoned the project midstream, he has been involved in golf and does not want to have anything to do with Ghana football anymore,” he added.

Frimpong Manso, who started his football career with Tony Yeboah in Kumasi-based Neoplan Stars four decades ago before joining Kumasi Cornerstone and Okwahu United respectively, said Yeboah took the decision to end his romance with football based on biased officiating against the club they formed about a decade ago.

 “His main concern was about biased officiating in Ghana football over the years. He told me that some referees came to him directly to demand money to officiate in his favour during our project, and when he refused, they joined hands to bring his club down.

“At a point in time, he lost his temper and said he was no more interested to continue with the club. I, therefore, doubt that he would involve himself even in football adminstration, let alone start another project,” he noted.

Frimpong Manso said, “we initiated the project from the colts level with the sole ambition of supporting the development of talented youth with skills in football. However, when we got to Division One, we started experiencing biased officiating from referees who handled our matches, both home and away.

“The situation was very irritating because some referees were bold enough to go to Tony to demand money from him to officiate in our favour during competitive matches which was against the principles of Tony.”

He stressed that, “it was at this stage that Tony became very infuriated by the behaviour of the referees, so he told me that he could not cope with the biased officiating against his club anymore. That is how he ended the project we spent so much time and resources to establish.”

Frimpong Manso said based on the irreversible decision taken by Yeboah, the club was sold to Prof. Joseph Albert Quarm, who is now a Member of Parliament for Manso Nkwanta Constituency in the Ashanti Region.