Former Ghana and Fulham defender John Paintsil and his partners have all but completed the takeover of one-time Ghana Premier League winners Wa All Stars.
The 37-year-old – who has led the process of acquiring the ownership rights of the Northern Blues from Kwesi Nyantakyi, the former Ghana FA President currently banned from all football related activities by Fifa – was forced to let the cat out of the bag by what he terms a false reportage by the local media that the club had rejected participating in the Normalization Committee Special Competition.
“Our attention has been brought to publication on some media outlets on the above subject [WA ALL STARS TO PULL OUT OF GHANA FA SPECIAL COMPETITION].
“We wish to inform the footballing and general public that the said publication is false and should be treated as such,” Paintsil wrote in a signed statement which also encouraged that “all correspondence to the Club must be directed” to him.
Reports of a takeover by Paintsil and team emerged late January 2019 but Wa All Stars moved to deny a deal was done at the time.
IDENTITY CHANGE
While the known directors of Wa All Stars have been silent over the latest development, Paintsil has thrown more light on the deal, revealing the ‘only’ stumbling block delaying their operations.
“The GFA needs the confirmation of the old directors that we are taking over and so they should deal with us. That’s the only thing left.
“We wanted to let everything [the process] to go quiet until the false publication. So we had to come out since we have the right to confirm playing in the Special competition or not,” he explained.
According to Paintsil, the name Wa All Stars has been officially struck out at the registry of companies. It is now called Stallions FC. [See below]
Wa All Stars, now Stallions FC, was formed in 2005 and two years later, they qualified for Premier League football and have maintained the status since then. In the 2015/16 season, the Northern Blues defied all odds to become Ghana Premier League champions for the first time.
