REVEALED: Why George Afriyie Lost Asante Kotoko CEO Job
The Board of Directors of Asante Kotoko Sporting Club was compelled to shut the CEO door on George Afriyie following the excellent performance put up by Nana Yaw Amponsah during his interview.
A spokesman of the Kotoko board, Mr Kwadwo Boateng Genfi, who revealed this to Graphic Sports in an exclusive interview, said the impressive presentation by Nana Yaw Amponsah gave the entire board no option than to cancel the interview appointment with George Afriyie.
Letting the best-kept secret out of the bag, Mr Genfi said though he was given the unpleasant duty to communicate the board's decision to Mr Afriyie, he managed to engage him without any problem.
He explained that as part of the mandate given by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the board head-hunted for a new CEO and settled on Nana Yaw Amponsah and George, both of him contested in the last Ghana Football Association (GFA) presidential election on October 25, 2019.
However, while the two officials were scheduled for an interview on the same day, the entire board was wowed by the performance of the first interviewee, making the second interview irrelevant.
"What happened was that we met a few people and shortlisted two people. But later, one of them didn’t show much interest but we had given them an appointment for an interview to be conducted on the same day: one in the morning, one in the afternoon.
"Nana Yaw came in the morning and he was so impressive that even though Manhyia had tasked us to do more head-hunting, we felt that he was the one we were looking for," he pointed out.
"We fell in love with him at the interview; he was seriously and highly impressive. Even the presentation he did during the interview was such that we decided not to bother ourselves to call any more people for interviews in order not to waste our time and that of those individuals."
According to Mr Genfi the 12-member board voted unanimously in Mr Amponsah's favour.
"It was unanimous - 12-0 - everyone on the board voted for him. It was only the voting for the timing of the announcement that was 11-1 because one person voted against it," he noted.
"When we decided on Nana Yaw, I personally called the other person (George Afriyie) to inform him about it.
"I spoke with him personally, and honestly I was so amazed at his level of confidence. He is a fantastic gentleman.
"He knows the inside-out of the game and I think he would also have been good but when we interviewed Nana Yaw we were satisfied with his performance," Mr Genfi stated.
"So it wasn’t a matter of rejection. No. We needed only one person and after Nana Yaw’s interview we decided not to go any further," he emphasised.