23 league titles + 9 FA Cup + 2 Ghana Super Cups+ 2 CAF Champions league + IFFHS Africa Club of the century = Asante Kotoko.
Own stadium + A Proper Training facility + CAF Confederation Cup + CAF Super Cup ≠ Asante Kotoko
From 31 August 1935 to now the football club Asante Kotoko, whose foundation is greatly credited to a driver, Kwasi Kuma helped by his friend, an electrician, Lawrence Yaw Asamoah, count the 1970 and 1983 Africa Cup of Champions Clubs titles won as part of their most delighted achievements.
There have been over thousand Ghanaian soccer clubs but there have been only two clubs to have won a major African title – Hearts of Oak and the other being the very subject of this article.
The great Asante Kotoko ensured five editions of the Africa Champions Cup would not pass without a Ghanaian club lifting Africa’s most important club soccer trophy. 1965 was Oryx Douala of Cameroon, “66 was Stade d’Abidjan from Ivory Coast. It was TP Englebert now TP Mazembe in 1967. TP Englebert again in “68 and Al-Ismaily of Egypt in “69.
Finally, finally. It was Asante Kotoko in 1970 that rejoiced at the Tata Raphael stadium in Kinsasha snatching the trophy from the hands of Englebert – against whom they contested and lost the “67 finals, in a bizarre circumstance .
The group of goalkeeper Robert Mensah, Ben Kusi, Oliver Acquah, Clifford Odame, Ohene Brenya, Ibrahim Sunday, Sule Musah, Yaw Sam, Abukari Gariba, Malik Jabir and Osumanu Orlando created a big history – becoming the first ever Ghanaian group of players to become champions of Africa.
The sporting accomplishments continued and continued – 23 league titles, 9 FA Cups and additional Africa cup of champions cup in 1983. Not even the all-powerful Real Rebublicans – the first Ghanaian side to compete in the competition – could do that.
On top of that the highly respected and FIFA-recognized International Federation of Football History and Statistics, IFFHS, in 2010, awarded the club with the honor of being the greatest African club of the 20th century. Alongside the Ghanaian club were Real Madrid who received the European club of the century title.
But despite all these proud achievements, there are still things the Porcupine Warriors haven’t been able to achieve after these 83 years of institutional existence.
No stadium
It is natural, nobody likes to be told their failures and people hate it when their failures are repeated to them. It is natural and expected. Even in moments of joy as soon as one’s failure is mentioned chances are that what was a joyful moment could turn into a short or long time of reflection – a time to take stock as to what caused the failure.
After 83 years, Kotoko, with millions of followers, haven’t got a soccer stadium of their own. Is it acceptable? When Elmina Sharks, of Papa Kwesi Ndoum, owned their own stadium, the Ndoum Sports stadium that was even used as one of the venues for the 2017 WAFU Cup of Nations.When Ashantigold has Len Clay stadium. The Sogakope artificial park belongs to WAFA. Crosby Awuah Park, where Kotoko got beaten 3-1, is for Karela United.
TP Mazembe – the coequals of the Kumasi giants opened the Stade TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi in 2011. It is an 18-000 seater fully owned by Moise Katumbi’s club.
Al Ahly formerly played their home games at their own ground, Mokhtar El-Tetsh Stadium, but its capacity was too small for the club’s support so they turned Mokhtar El-Tetsh Stadium to their Training Ground. As a consequence, Al-Ahly moved to play their home games at the Cairo International Stadium. But even with this there are still plans by the club to build a bigger stadium that will take 60 000 people.
In September 2017 the Executive Board Chairman Dr. Kwame Kyei cut sod for the construction of a mini stadium at Adako Jachie. The progress of this project has stalled and no one actually knows what will happened next.
The Babayara sports stadium has been the home venue for the club for years but it remains a government property. Whilst it is true there are some bigger European clubs that use government owned stadium like AC Milan, Inter Milan who uses the San Siro in Italy the likes of Juventus, Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid own their stadiums.
No proper training facility at Adako Jachie
The club started training at Adako Jachie some eight years ago. Eight years are more than enough to have erected a standard training facility on the land. But at the moment the Adako Jachie lacks a single completed room. There are no places of convenience like toilet facilities, washroom, restroom where one can make himself comfortable .
Moreover after each training session the technical staff transport soccer equipments like soccer balls, training attire, cones etc and come along with them the next day and this is because there are no places to keep them at the training ground. This has been the routine at least for the past eight years and it does not match the greatness and history of the club that celebrates 83 years on this day.
Kotoko still lack the Confederation Cup
Also the CAF Confederation Cup is missing on the history as the club lost the 2004 finals to sworn rivals Hearts of Oak – a defeat that has the pain of death to all Kotoko people.
Normally for a club that has won the ultimate champions league, a lack of Confederation Cup success shouldn’t have mattered.
But the fact that Hearts of Oak clinched the 2004 trophy at their expense means the Confederation Cup remains a trophy to win by Asante Kotoko for the sake of bragging right as Phobians are always quick in referring to what happened at the Babayara sports stadium on 9 January 2004.
This year when the club entered the completion they exited at the first hurdle after misfiring three of four penalties awarded in a first leg 1-0 win over Congo’s CARA Brazzaville. The team went out on penalties in the return leg after losing 1-0 in regular time.
