Veteran football administrator Abbey Pobee
Veteran football administrator Abbey Pobee has described as unfortunate, comments by Samuel Nartey George, the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram that despite being a Hearts fan, he would not invest in the club.
Sam George speaking on the StarrChat show last week said he will not contribute to the running of the club as the funds will be diverted for ‘ways and means.’
The MP was unhappy that management of the club have over the years not exhibited the principles of accountability and transparency.
“Every year, I pay close to $1000 to Arsenal as a paid-up fan, you think I will not want to make that contribution to Hearts of Oak? I will but I won’t,” Sam George said on Starr FM’s StarrChat program.
According to him, at the end of the year, he gets a “letter from Arsenal stating what the funds he contributed as a paid-up member of the club have been used for. I see what the club is using the money for, if I put that money into Hearts of Oak is anybody ready to account to me?” he quizzed.
“I will not pay that money [to Hearts of Oak] and someone will come and put a budget line for me and tell me that 80% of the money went into ways and means, what is ‘ways and means,” he quizzed further.
Reacting to Same George’s claims in a Peace FM interview, Abbey Pobee challenged Sam George to show evidence to support the claims.
He said that if the comments from Sam George is representative of the opinion of majority of MPs then Ghana football has a huge a problem.
Abbey Pobee said that the comments smacks of disrespect for the Ghana Premier League and ignorance about how is football is managed.
“It shows that we’re not serious as a nation because these same people approve the Black Stars budget for tournament so if they’ve seen that the league is not good and this league produces players for the Black Stars then we have a problem. “If a Parliamentarian can say this then it’s important we hold a deliberate on our league. I don’t think he respects the league. Where did he see Hearts officials doing juju. It was an unfortunate statement. He should come again.”