New deals for Kenichi’s men?
The board of directors and management of Accra Hearts of Oak are expected to negotiate new deals with the club’s technical handlers in a bid to stem the sudden stand-off between Kenichi Yatsuhashi’s backroom staff and the management due to contractual problems.
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According to a Hearts source, Yatsuhashi’s two assistant coaches, Yaw Preko and Nasamu Yakubu, did not negotiate for winning bonuses when they signed a two-year contract to work in the Phobian stables. But yesterday the club’s top officials were taking steps to renegotiate the contracts with the two men to avert a full-blown crisis.
Last Sunday, Coach Yatsuhashi, in an uncharacteristic style, dropped a bombshell in a post on his Facebook wall, in which he, among other things, revealed that his assistants, Preko and Nasamu (the goalkeepers’ trainer) had not been paid their bonuses and salaries which had been outstanding since November last year.
According to the Japanese-American coach, he had refused various attempts by management to pay him when his assistants were owed bonuses and salaries.
But last Monday, a meeting convened by the board was literally boycotted by the entire technical team with the head coach indicating to the board in an e-mail that he was not accountable to the board, while Preko and Nasamu claimed they had national assignments to attend. Nasamu works with the Black Stars while Preko is the assistant coach of the national U-20 team, Black Satellites.
But an inside source within the board told the Graphic Sports that the current management of the club inherited contracts for Coach Yatsuhashi and his assistants which had no place for winning bonuses.
“Preko, as a member of the Professional Football Association (PFA), was given a draft of his contract to take home yet came back without negotiating for bonuses.
“The same could be said of Nasamu. Only Sabahn Quaye, the team manager negotiated for winning bonus”, he stressed.
The source said the club had no cashflow problem and almost ready to settle the two months salary owed the players.
Meanwhile, the management has debunked rumours that the club was in crisis
According to the club, it has been quietly managing the unreasonable and strange situation it has been bedevilled with over the past week.
A released signed yesterday by the club’s Communications Manager, Kwame Opare Addo, criticised “the unacceptable conduct of coach Yatsuhashi who went public with issues relating to conditions of service of his technical staff and players.”