Change in Hearts of Oak ownership style has created more problems for club – Ernest Thompson
Ernest Thompson is the longest-serving board secretary of Accra Hearts of Oak
Ernest Thompson, a former board secretary of Accra Hearts of Oak has conceded that the target set by the club in its decision to change its ownership structure has not been achieved.
Read full articleIn 2010, Hearts of Oak decided to trade their traditional ownership structure for a more corporate one with the hope that the move will usher into a new dawn of success.
However, a decade on, Hearts are yet to win any major trophy with the gap between them and other big teams on the continent widening as days go by.
The change in ownership style which was meant to give Hearts fans more influence in major decisions has rather created discord between the current handlers of the club and the fans.
Ernest Thompson, in a GhanaWeb interview, recognized that the decision to float shares has not yielded the intended result.
He said that instead of the move to help the club generate revenue and compete with the best on the continent, the opposite is rather happening.
The flotation of shares has also created some disunity between Hearts’ current management and their predecessor who achieved great things with the club.
“To be very blunt, I think whatever problems we have now have been created by decision to change the structure of the club. The decision to float shares has rather led to more problems. The club Hearts of Oak was doing very well on the field but we all came to the conclusion that the financial bit was not going well so there was the need to change the structure of the club and float shares, get more people to buy the shares so that we improve the financial base of the club.
“Unfortunately, its implementation has rather created more problems than it should have solved. It led to disagreement between some of the current shareholders and previous board members. I also don’t think the financial aspect of the move has been achieved. The club has not improved financially and it cannot continue to rely on individuals to achieve certain things like buying good players good technical teams and reaching the level other clubs in Africa have,” Mr Thompson intimated..
Despite these worrying observations, Ernest Thompson is hopeful that the club will fight back and reclaim its lost pride.
He, therefore, charged the club’s fans to keep faith with the club and hope for the very best in the future.
