By Ameenu Shardow
Heart of Lions have been confirmed as a replacements for Asante Kotoko in the novelty GHALCA pre-season tournament, GHANAsoccernet.com has gathered.
The controversial tournament has now suffered two major withdrawals; Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko but organizers insists the competition will come off as scheduled.
"We have decided to replace Kotoko with Heart of Lions," Organizing Committee chairman, Kwaku Eyiah confirmed to Accra-based Peace FM.
"We wrote to them upon hearing their intention to withdraw from the tournament and gave them up to Thursday to confirm their participation but have since not heard from them.
"We then took the decision to replace them (Kotoko) with the next in hierarchy on the Premier League table which fell on Heart of Lions."
The Kpando-based club has also confirmed their preparedness to compete in the novelty tournament though at short notice.
"We welcome the news and I can assure all of our willingness to play this competition," Lions CEO Desmond Frimpong-Manso told GHANAsoccernet.com.
"We have already begun our pre-season training for about a month now and therefore playing this competition would not be a problem at all."
The participants will be made to sign onto the rules and guidelines of the tournament before being given part payment of their appearance fee of 30,000 Ghana cedis.
The official name and headline sponsor plus the teams and format for the maiden competition would be revealed at a media launch on Saturday.