Asante Kotoko management member Nana Kwame Dankwah has firmly discarded claims by the club’s head coach Kjetil Zachariassen that the team currently lacks the ability to compete in the CAF Champions League but best fits to play in the Confederations Cup, Africa’s second elite club competition.
Asante Kotoko were inches away from making it to the group stage of the Champions League after beating Etoile Sportive du Sahel by 2-0 in the first leg of the final preliminary qualifiers, but lost the reversed fixture by three unanswered goals, exiting the most prestigious club competition in Africa.
“This is our level at the moment now, we are in the Confederations Cup, I think that is the right level for us, we have to be realistic and we have to tell the fans that they’ve got to be realistic because we have only worked together for three months”, coach Zachariassen told the press after the team’s 3-0 defeat to Etoile sportive du Sahel in Monastir.
The comments have left several fans of the club peeved, and now management member Nana Kwame Dankwah have expressed his disagreement with the coach’s opinion.
“He’s expressed his opinion but I feel I disagree with him”, Nana Kwame responded in an interview with the media after the match. “I disagree completely with him, I feel Kotoko we are at a level that the Champions League is not beyond us, we can play, it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t remain in the Champions League competition but for Kotoko the Champions League is not bigger than us”, he insisted.
The Norwegian coach Kjetil Zachariassen, who many have alleged is just a scout instead, took over the Kotoko coaching job in July 2019 and believes it’s not possible to prepare the team withing three months to succeed in the Champions League for now, thinking the best level for the club per current form is the Confederations Cup.
