KOTOKO HUMILIATES BA IN KUMASI (NSEMPA, BACK PAGE)

By Kwame Asare Boadu, Sunyani

MANY supporters of B/A United are looking for answers as to why their team was humiliated 8-2 by Kumasi Asante Kotoko in a friendly encounter at the Baba Yara Stadium on May 31, 2009.
It was the biggest ever defeat suffered by the former premiership side in any match and many of the supporters saw it as a disgrace to the one-time Apostles of Power Soccer.
While the supporters brood over the ignominious defeat, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the club seems to have the answer to this unforgivable loss.
Mr Charles Ntim, the CEO, says his players over-ate in Kumasi resulting in their heavy defeat to Asante Kotoko.
“I am surprised! My players ate so much food and it made them heavy and unable to run during the match,” Mr Ntim a.k.a, Micky Charles told Graphic Nsempa.
“I can’t tell whether they were so hungry. Even if they were that hungry, they should have known that as footballers, eating heavily just before a match would surely have a telling effect on the performance of the team,” he said.
He added that, “I am not happy at all because BA have an image to protect.”
BA United were using the match to fine-tune themselves for the start of the second round of the division one league, while Asante Kotoko were also using the match as a preparatory one for their titanic Glo Premier match against arch rivals, Hearts of Oak at the Ohene Djan Stadium on June 14.
The Sunyani-based side have found themselves at the bottom of the Zone 2 A of the National First Division League after 18 points were deducted from their points build up.
This followed a ruling of the Disciplinary Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) which declared them losers in three matches and further lost nine points for wrongly using a player by name Douglas Amankwaa.
The Committee’s decision came as a shock to United fans who were expecting the club to qualify for the next middle league.
If the decision stands, United stands the danger of slipping to the second division next season.
But, the club has filed an appeal at the GFA, hoping to overturn the disciplinary committee’s decision.
According to United, the decision to strip them of the points was baseless and without any merit and expressed the hope that the truth would come out at the appeal committee’s sitting.