The commercial director of English premier league side Sunderland Gary Hutchinson has exclusively told Joy sports the partnership between their club and Asante Kotoko still holds despite the exit of former executive chairman of Kotoko Dr KK Sarpong. There were fears that the shock resignation of Dr Sarpong some months back would abrogate the existing deal since he was so instrumental in brokering the deal. But Gary Hutchinson who was in Ghana some weeks ago to meet the new board of directors of Kotoko says the much anticipated partnership deal between the two clubs is still pending. “We came to meet the new board of directors of Kotoko and we are very impressed with the ideas they put down,” said Hutchison “One thing we should establish is that the partnership is not about the past or current leadership of the club, the partnership is between the clubs and that is important. “So we came here to re affirm that Sunderland is still committed to helping Kotoko and just to get a feel of the new to continue where we left of last year.”