Ex-Hearts of Oak forward Louis Agyemang had revealed that players had to contribute money to pay for better hotel accommodation during their campaign in the 2004 CAF Confederation Cup.
The Phobians secured a vital 0-0 draw in Dakar to progress to the group stages of the competition on a 1-0 aggregate.
The Phobians arrived in the Senegalese capital to meet unwelcoming conditions including bad hotel accommodation and former striker Louis Agyemang has revealed that players were made to contribute money to pay for a new hotel.
“We [the players] had to contribute money to pay for a better hotel when we arrived in Senegal because we realised that the state of the hotel facility they gave us was very bad because it had mosquitoes and other unhygienic conditions which could have affected us. The leadership of the playing body including Amankwaa Mireku came to an agreement and resort that we make a contribution to pay for a better hotel and we did,” he told Dan Kwaku Yeboah TV.
The Phobians lifted the maiden edition of the competition in 2004 after CAF founded it as the merger of the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners’ Cup.
Louis Agyemang, who was converted from a defender to an attacker by the popular German trainer Ernst Middendorp, played an influential role in the Rainbow Club’s triumphant story.
The 39-year-old scored a 90th-minute goal to cancel out Michael Ember Power Osei’s strike just around the hour mark, sending the first leg clash at the Accra Sports Stadium to a 1-1 drawn game.
In the reverse fixture which was staged at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on 9th January 2005, Charles Taylor hit the opener for Kotoko but Lawrence Adja-Tetteh once again pulled parity for the Phobians with 9 minutes of regulation time left.
Hearts went ahead to emerge victorious 8-7 on penalties after Joseph Hendricks missed Kotoko’s 9th penalty, leaving it for midfielder Michael Donkor to slam home the winning penalty.
#2022FIFAWorldCup: Top 11 Most Dangerous Players in Group H – Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez & More
“I received GHS1,700 for my contribution to the success. I played all the matches. It was my brother who even went for the money because I had gone to South Africa by then. Some received GHS1,000 while others received GHS1,100 because they had to share the money according to the number of games played,” he told Dan Kwaku Yeboah TV on YouTube.
The title became Hearts’ third continental gong after having won the CAF Champions League and the CAF Super Cup four years prior to that success.
