The 1986 mass transfer in Hearts of Oak explained

At the end of the 1986 league season, one of the two big football clubs in Ghana, Accra Hearts of Oak, shocked the world by sacking 23 senior players. That sounds like the entire playing body which was exited and this left the team sheet empty.

Dr Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe who took the unprecedented decision as club chairman at the time has explained the rationale behind the bold action. He says the club was soaked in briberies which lowered the bar to play it soft and lose matches.

So bad was the dismal performance in 1986, that Hearts of Oak which was the defending champions had to battle with relegation. A draw against Cape Coast Venomous Vipers in Accra enabled Hearts to escape relegation in the eleventh hour by the skin of their teeth.

He said the Hearts’ Africa campaign ended in the quarter-finals at the feet of Nkana Red Devils of Zambia. Though Hearts lost the first leg in Kitwe 2-0, a blistering first-half approach to the return leg in Accra which Hearts took the lead, suddenly evaporated, causing elimination from the competition.

He then took the decision to put all the senior players of the club on transfer. They included Opoku Afriyie, Sampson Lamptey, Ofei Ansah, Thomas Hammond, Sam Yeboah, Collins Paha, Kofi Abbrey, Felix Mills, Joe Amoateng, George Lamptey, Isaac Ayipey, Freeman Turkson, Albert Ansuade and others.

They were replaced with teenage players out of which a star player late Shamo Quaye emerged.