Accra Hearts of Oak's management has asked fans to rally behind the team's current campaigns and reject calls by a former executive Aziz Haruna agitating fans to take back their club.

In a press statement Thursday, Management announced that it was taking steps to float more shares to encourage greater ownership among its fan base.

11^th February, 2015

PRESS RELEASE

RE: HEARTS FANS WANT THEIR TEAM BACK- AZIZ HARUNA

The Management of Accra Hearts of Oak have read the above-captioned story published by myjoyonline .com and wish to react as follows:

In the first place, all it is totally false that the club has been taken away from the supporters as Aziz Futa claims. Indeed, the current dispensation is the product of a process initiated by The Board of Directors of Accra Hearts of Oak who had been voted into office by the supporters, and a brief background is necessary here:

In 2011, the Board of Accra Hearts of Oak decided to make public floatation of shares to raise a targeted amount of GHC10 million to enable the club retire its debts and undertake critical infrastructure development. Despite the offer being open to all; fans, Board members and patrons, the patronage was abysmal. Out of the targeted GHC10 million, only a little less than GHC 800,000 was realised. Meanwhile, a minimum of GHC2.5 million, being 25% of the targeted amount, was required to make the floatation successful.

As things stood, the Board faced the grim prospect of having to return subscribers’ monies to them, in addition to losing the huge amount invested in the exercise. It was at this desperate point that the Board approached Togbe Afede XIV to intervene and save the embarrassing situation. This was when Togbe Afede XIV stepped in through his companies, Strategic African Securities and Strategic African Initiatives.

Clearly therefore, it took the sacrifices of Hearts supporters, who decided to put their money where their heart is, for the floatation to be successful and to save the image of the club.

Now, where was Aziz Futa when the floatation desperately needed to be salvaged? If he knew how to raise funds from fans, why didn’t he do so, as then Vice Chairman of the NCC, to keep the club financially vibrant and avert the need for the floatation in the first place?

The former Management member is again reported to have declared that ‘’there is a huge gap between the fans and the Board.’’ Nothing can be further from the truth. The current National Chapters’ Committee Chairman, just like his predecessor, sits on the Board as the representative of the supporters.

Similarly, the Managing Director and Board member, like the one before him, is a former supporters’ leader, a circumstance that makes Management very accessible to the fans.

Aziz Futa is also reported thus: “…… we the supporters want to own our club Accra Hearts of Oak.”  Of course all the shareholders of the Club, including Togbe Afede XIV are supporters of Accra Hearts of Oak, so the Club is actually owned by supporters. In fact, plans are far advanced to offer the supporters another opportunity to consolidate their ownership by buying more shares through a rights issue to be launched in the last quarter of the year.  

In conclusion, we wish to call on all members of the Hearts family to reject the attempt to sow discord and disunity among us, and rather work together to achieve our objectives in the ongoing FCP Premier League and the CAF Confederation Cup. 

BY: MANAGEMENT