The leadership of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Circles have called of the trip being organized to send supporters to Kano by land to support the team in their Champions League game against Kano Pillars on Saturday.
Chairman of the Ashanti regional Circles, Mr. Obeng Sekyere was leading a campaign to organize supporters for the trip to support their beloved club as they begin their CAF Champions League campaign against Kano Pillars, but they cancelled the trip due to low patronage by the supporters.
Organizers were charging GHC600.00 per head for the trip which was scheduled to start from tomorrow, but several fans who expressed interest in their move initially have failed to make payments, and the overall turn out has been virtually below expectations.
Meanwhile, reports say most fans were discouraged by the fear of not being safe on the buses considering the distance, and organizers have quashed the plans upon several cautions and concerns raised in the local media.
“The one who wanted to hire the buses for us later decided that we should rather gather more supporters for the return leg at home”, Obeng Sekyere told Fox Sports. “Also, how most of the [radio] stations where complaining about the distance, it made a lot of people lost their interest and as at [last] Friday a lot of people had not fulfilled their commitments (made payments for the trip) so if we insist on continuing, we won’t be able to make the necessary arrangements, that is why we called it off”, he confirmed.
Asked if the cancellation of the trip is solely necessitated by low patronage, Obeng answered in affirmative. “Yea, it’s the (low) patronage that made us not to go ahead”, he said.
A check by Fox Sports however revealed, that Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, H.E. Rashid Bawa, after being consulted, advised officials of Kotoko to cancel the said trip due to safety reasons.
Asante Kotoko is currently in Accra and will have their last training this afternoon on the Accra Academy Senior High School artificial turf before enplaning to Abuja tomorrow morning.
