Give Kotoko to strategic investors — Abbey Pobee

One of Ghana’s outspoken football administrators, Jonathan Abbey Pobee, has suggested that Kumasi Asante Kotoko be leased to a consortium to run it for a period of between five and 10 years on a 70-30 per cent sharing basis to stem its flagging fortunes.

He said the consortium could be local or foreign with a track record and the expertise to transform it and make it one of the greatest clubs in Africa.

If successful, the consortium, according to him, must take 70 per cent of any profit that will accrue from player transfer and sale of other paraphernalia  with the remaining 30 per cent paid going to the club.

The ratio sharing is to be different from the contract sales or lease sums, which should include the club’s goodwill.

The chairman of erstwhile Neoplan Stars, a former Premier League side, argued in an interview with the Graphic Sports in Kumasi that there was nothing wrong handing over the club to competent experts who have the track record to improve the financial capacity of the club.

He said persistent reliance on the Life Patron of the club, Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for financial support was not the way to go rather managers of the club should be able to run the club commercially to render account to the traditional owner of the club.

He noted that past chairmen of the club had often claimed the club owed them after their exit which was an indication that the club was not being run professionally.