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Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club, commonly known as Hearts of Oak or simply Hearts is a professional sports club based in Accra (Greater Accra), Ghana. The club competes in the Ghana Premier League, the Premier division of the Ghana soccer pyramid.
The Accra Sports Stadium is their playing field where they play their home games. Hearts has won the Premier League twenty times, the FA Cup a record ten times, the President’s Cup twice, and the CAF African Champions League and CAF Confederations Cup each. Hearts of Oak was also ranked 8th in the world’s soccer club in 2000, when the club dominated most of the continent’s sporting activities.
HISTORY
The club was founded on November 11, 1911. Hearts of Oak won its first major game in 1922 when Sir Gordon Guggisberg, Governor of the Gold Coast, founded the Accra Football League. Hearts won 6 of the 12 seasons in this league. In 1956, Hearts joined the Ghana Soccer League and has thrived ever since.
In 2000, Hearts of Oak won the FA Cup in Ghana, the Premier League in Ghana and, for the first time in its history, the CAF Champions League, making it the most successful year in Club history.
On May 9, 2001, 127 people died in Africa’s worst football disaster. During a match between rivals, Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko. The problem started when Asante Kotoko’s supporters began tearing up seats in an act of vandalism in protest of a goal allowed by the referee. The match was officiated by referee J.Wilson Sey, from Cape Coast. The police reacted by firing tear gas into the crowd, it has been suggested that this was an overreaction. Reports suggest that the doors to the ground were closed and that the stadium did not meet FIFA standards. The rush to escape tear gas was a contributing factor to the death toll. A commission investigation indicted six police officers in its initial report, but they were not convicted because it was felt that the deaths could have been caused by the stampede rather than tear gas.
STADIUM
Accra Hearts of Oak plays home games at Accra Sports Stadium. Accra Sports Stadium, formerly known as Ohene Djan Sports Stadium, is currently under construction and has an estimated capacity of 40,000 seats. Although it was purchased in the 1980s, the Pobiman training ground only came into use in the summer of 2018. Construction for a 19-acre site expansion in the Pobiman neighborhood is currently in the planning stages. The club plans to build state-of-the-art facilities.
Rivalries
Accra Hearts of Oak’s oldest rivalry is with Asante Kotoko SC and its city rivals Accra Great Olympics FC.
HONORS
Official Trophies (recognized by CAF and FIFA)
Domestic
- Ghana Premier League
- Champions (20): 1956, 1958, 1961–62, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1984, 1985, 1989–90, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2009
- Ghana FA Cup
- Winners (10): 1973, 1974, 1979, 1981, 1989, 1990 (After winning a protest declaring them winners), 1993–94, 1995–96, 1999, 2000
International
- CAF Champions League
- Winners: 2000
- Runners-up: 1977, 1979
- CAF Super Cup:
- Winners: 2001
- Runners-up: 2005
- 20th century CAF clubs:
- Accra Hearts of Oak is one of the CAF clubs of the 20th century
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