Accra Heart of Oaks F.C

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Closer and Closer to Europe

Hearts of Oaks are counting the days to what could prove their biggest match in their history on Sunday afternoon.

A win on Sunday will equal Kotoko’s record of winning the One Touch league for an impressive twentieth time. However club Public Relation Manager Albert Commeyo Aryeetey stressed the importance of the club having a strong relationship with its supporters and local community in order to move forward.

“We see ourselves as a family club, it is important to have a bond with the community and we feel it is our duty to support them as they support us.”

Hearts of Oaks have been known to visit local schools, universities and villages the care in the community is said to form a unique relationship with the fans. “Everything we do is for the future, it is highly important that we are involved with the local community, as I believe that they are the root to our future as a club.”

African football has come along way in the past years with interest constantly growing, Mr Aryeetey believes that football in Ghana is slowly coming close to those in Europe, he said: “In a technical point of view it is catching up, on the training pitch our technical ability shows that we are coming closer and closer.”

“In order for our club and Ghanaian football to move forward we need to be able to upgrade our training pitches and club facilities, with theses facilities I think we can then think of competing at a higher continental level.”

He added, “It is hard to compete with the stars of Europe however as a country we have proved we can compete.” With Ghana producing stars such as Essien, Appiah and successes in the 2000 African Nations Cup and 2006 World Cup in Germany it is clear for everybody to see that football is moving closer to those from the Western World.

Mr Aryeety added “If we can continue to develop players onto the World Stage we have a chance of upgrading our home football, with an upgrade in facilities and structure within the leagues the beautiful game can only be made stronger.”

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