Hearts did not sack Kenichi – Odotei-Sowah

The Chairman of the Strategic Committee of Accra Heart of Oak, Vincent Odotei- Sowah Wednesday said the club did not sack Kenichi Yatsuhashi as being rumoured.

Mr. Odotei-Sowah, in an interview with the GNA Sports, disclosed that the club never sacked the Japanese coach but Kenichi rather requested for his exit to enable him to go for a coaching course.

According to him, Kenichi had an agreement with Management to attend a coaching course in July before he was signed by the club, and that, management accepted that decision based on the calendar of the league, but unfortunately the league did not commence on the proposed date fixed by the Ghana Football Association.

He again emphasized that the club never paid any compensation to the former coach but will pay the May and June salary as requested by the former coach.

He admitted that the Japanese-born American coach’s departure has created a vacuum and therefore the club needs to employ a new coach before the second round of the league resumes.
‘‘Kenichi will be absent for 25 days and that is too long a time for us and so when we met the technical team yesterday, we were actually going to put Yaw Preko in charge as proposed by Kenichi.”

“We discussed everything and at the end tail end of the conversation it emerged that even Yaw will also leave for Senegal on July 11, so we decided to use a new coach so that there will be no vacuum.’’

The Accra based club looks likely to employ the youth coach Sergio Daniel Moniz Traguil.

When asked about the pedigree of the Portuguese coach, Mr. Sowah said Sergio has a good CV and has worked with clubs like Kaduna United, Benfica and many others, and that, the club will give him the maximum support to succeed.

Odotei-Sowah also appealed to the fans to support the new coach.

Source: GNA