It’s December 2009, and Kraft Food, a global beverage manufacturer, has just discredited Cadbury in a cold-blooded, attempt to take over the company. In not so many words, Kraft claimed that Cadbury’s investors would have to choose between the “certainty” of its offer and the “risk” of potentially losing all their shares.
“Cadbury is asking its shareholders to put their faith in long-term targets, never before achieved by Cadbury.”
Cadbury had promised investors that it could achieve annual sales growth of 4% to 6% and a new operating margin target of 16% to 18% by 2013 without incurring more restructuring costs. Having already spent £1bn revamping its supply chain, Cadbury found it hard convincing shareholders to dismiss Kraft’s argument.
A month later, Cadbury’s shareholders accepted Kraft’s $19.6 billion offer, in what was and remains a landmark case in hostile takeovers.
Bekwai Heroes’ adoption of AshantiGold’s name and emblem invokes memories of this. Except that this was without any direct negotiation with current shareholders. After all, the club did not even exist in name.
In May 2022, AshantiGold S.C. and Inter Allies were expelled from the top flight, and demoted two divisions down into Division Two – the third tier of Ghana football.
It was punishment for being found guilty of match manipulation in AshantiGold’s 7-0 win over Inter Allies in 2021.
CEO Emmanuel Frimpong, his father and chairman of the club, Kwaku Frimpong, were handed eight and ten-year bans respectively. In total, 25 players were slapped with separate bans too.
AshGold responded with an injunction application to halt the start of the 2022/23 GPL season. They would later withdraw the application.
In response, the GFA suspended the club indefinitely for continuing to deal with the banned officials.
What the GFA did next was decisive and bold.
At its 29th Congress in Kumasi in July 2023, the GFA voted to permanently expel the club as member. This meant that the entity known as AshantiGold S.C was no more.
Not its Premier League history – and there is quite a bit. Four league titles in 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, and 2014–15 seasons.
Not its F.A Cup history – champions in 1992/93 season. Not its CAF Champions League history – runners up in 1996/97 season.
Nothing.
All gone at the stroke of a pen.
With nothing to lose, AshantiGold shifted focus to the substantive case in court against guilty verdict in the match manipulation case and the subsequent expulsion.
Their case was anchored on two things – that they were not giving a fair hearing, and that the GFA did not include the match commissioner and the referee’s report in its investigations.
In October 2023, the Human Rights High Court in Accra ruled against AshantiGold. The Court said that the club fully participated in both the investigation and the proceedings before the Disciplinary Committee, and were given a fair hearing and all opportunities to defend themselves.
The judgment went on to indicate that AshantiGold S.C. did not establish that the Match Commissioners’ Report or the Referees’ Report would have helped their defence in any way, and therefore, no injustice was caused to them when those documents were not used in the proceedings.
AshGold had effectively been defeated, and this time, for good. Or so we thought.
In June 2025, Essence Energy – owners of Division One side, Bekwai Heroes F.C., decided to rebrand under the new name F.C. AshantiGold 04. They had the same colours as the now defunct AshGold – gold, an eerily similar club logo – an elephant with a football at its feet. The only distinction here being the old AshGold logo, has an elephant juggling the ball with its trunk, and not with its feet.
Soon after, a request lands at the GFA: change the name to Ashantigold 04 FC. Getting GFA approval was next.
Per the GFA, without any direct ties with the former directors, employees, especially the sanctioned players, the former CEO and owner of the old club, there was no basis to reject their application.
So after doing its due diligence, F.C. AshantiGold 04, was accepted, along with its strikingly similar emblems.
Could the GFA have rejected their application, though? Take the name for example. From the moment the Registrar General’s Department accepted and registered them, there was not much the GFA could have done.
For the logo, AshGold were no longer in existence at the time of the new club’s application. That meant the logo, colours, designs and all the elements that identify the club ceased to exist.
So in reality, the GFA had no legal basis to reject F.C. AshantiGold 04’s application.
In fact, the GFA’s decision was confirmed by the courts when they rejected a copyrights and intellectual property claim by the banned owners of AshGold.
Apparently, AshGold, despite using the logo and name since 1978, the club had failed to register them.
After doing its due diligence, F.C. AshantiGold 04 quickly registered the name and logo, making them the club’s intellectual property.
Once the time stamps and relevant documents for these were provided in court, the verdict was clear – F.C. AshantiGold 04 were free to use them and as rights owners.
The GFA’s Club Licensing Baord, also inspected and approved their use of the Len Clay Stadium – a facility they were already using.
As a final layer of credibility and image enhancement, the club hires Abdul Karim Zito, former Kotoko coach in February, while still top of Zone Two, while on the cusp of promotion. Exactly 60 days later, Zito got them over the line.
Next season, AshGold will be back in the Ghana Premier League after Eric Oppong Agyemang’s hostile take over. But unlike Kraft and Cadbury, there was no exchange of cash.
Essence Energy did not need to convince AshGold’s shareholders either.
All they had to do was watch Kwaku Frimpong and his son, burn into extinction, Ghana’s third most successful football club.
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
Source: www.myjoyonline.com