Ghana premier league side Asante Kotoko turned down a late request from their CAF Champions League opponents Etoile Sportive du Sahel for a change of match venue for the last prelims qualifiers second leg with just 72 hours from the match kickoff time.
The 2007 Champions of the competition will host Asante Kotoko for the return leg of their Champions League encounter second leg on Sunday, and the Red and White have requested for a change of the match venue, but officials of the Porcupine Warriors have firmly turned them down.
The match was earlier scheduled to be played at the Stade Mustapha Ben Jannet in Monastir, but the hosts, after Kotoko’s arrival in Monastir, made a late request for the match to be moved back to the club’s traditional home grounds, Stade Olympique de Sousse, offering to pay any extra expenses the move may cause to Kotoko.
“It’s true, they put it before us that they want us to change so we move the match from Monastir to Tunis”, Nana Gyambibi Coker, Special Assistant to club Executive Chairman confirmed the news to Fox FM. “When we assessed our arrangement and everything for training, if we accept it at this time it won’t help us, so we’ve made them (Etoile du Sahel) to understand that we can’t accept it and they’ve also agreed, so on Sunday the match will be played here in Monastir”,
According to Coker, Kotoko communicated their disapproval to CAF and the issue has been resolved amicably between the two side having agreed on the match to be played in Monastir as initially arranged.
Asante Kotoko trained this afternoon in Monastir ahead of the match on Sunday and are focused on acclimatization before the game. The match kicks off at 16:H00GMT. Kotoko won the first leg 2-0 at the Baba Yara sports stadium and hopes to at least secure a draw on Sunday to book a place in the group stage of this season’s Champions League campaign
