Some shareholders of Accra Hearts of Oak are grumbling over the persistent branding of the club�s jerseys, by Strategic Africa Securities(SAS) whose contract expired two years ago.
A prominent shareholder who spoke to the Graphic Sports yesterday on conditition of anonymity was outraged at the deafening silence of the board of directors of the club over the matter which, he argued, had brought a colossal GH�1.2million financial loss to the club and their shareholders in general.
Explaining further, he disclosed that in 2011, the Phobians had reached an agreement with MTN, their headline sponsors, for a renewal of their contract which would have guaranteed them GH�1million.
The package, he said included GH�600,000 a year for operational expenses, GH�100,000 for supporters mobilization and another GH�100,000 for development of a playing ground over three years.
Unfortunately, he said,� when the current board took over, it insisted on a two-year contract instead of the three-year deal that the MTN had proposed�.
�We were under the illusion then that we could replicate the Barcelona and Real Madrid experience in Ghana and get better deals�, he revealed.
According to him, SAS which was the transactional advisors to Hearts� Initial Public Offer (IPO) to raise capital, took over and signed a GH�1.2milllion deal the club Hearts for two years, which expired in 2013.
However, he argued that rather than stopping the use of SAS embrased on the jerseys, the board had maintained it, creating an illusion that the club was still being sponsored by the company.
�What this situation has created is that it has blocked all potential sponsors from dealing with Hearts, leaving the club in a dire financial situation�, he stated.
�At the last Annual General Meeting somebody brought it up but it was brushed aside�, he disclosed.
The prominent shareholder revealed that the situation had further increased the indebtedness of the club as it had resorted to massive borrowing to finance their operational costs.
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