CEO of National Petroleum Authority, Mustapha Hamid has asserted that Accra Hearts of Oak’s success in the Ghana Premier League was the perfect stepping stone to relaunch their continental engagements in next season’s CAF Champions League.
Hearts of Oak automatically earned a spot at next year’s African club tournament after being crowned champions of the local league.
The Phobians opened a 4 point gap over second-placed Asante Kotoko to emerge as winners of the GPL ahead of the final round of games.
Hamid revealed that the club is aiming to return to its glorious days in Africa with this victory serving as a first step.
According to him, winning the league “means a lot to us as a club because you know it’s been 11-years of drought and anything we needed to win the trophy we did and I believe that we’ve done our best and the Almighty Allah has crowned our hard work and therefore we are very happy.
“We hope that we will use this as a launchpad to beef up our team to go to Africa,” the NPA boss said.
Explaining how the team managed to transform itself following a number of hurdles including the exiting of coaches and some key technical men, the politician noted that it took decisive transfer decisions and monetary investment by some members.
He said, “The team kept evolving, there were certain key players we had to get like Ibrahim Salifu, Emmanuel Nettey, so we bought them to beef up and help us develop.”
Mustapha Hamid added “We got this coach also from Medeama and you can see ever since he came, he has helped us with the transformation of our team.
“Those of us who had to put our little contribution by way of money, we also did what we had to do and that has culminated in our success.”
