Real Tamale United (RTU) has appointed Mr. Kassim Perez as its new Chief Executive Officer.
The club has qualified and promoted to the prestigious Ghana Premier League and is reinforcing its governance, management, technical directorate and playing squad.
Mr. Kassim Perez comes to the position with diverse capabilities as he was a pioneer player of the club and featured prominently between 1977 and 1980 before he left the country in search of new opportunities.
Before RTU, he played for Savannah Stars FC and subsequently, Gbewaa United FC, which participated in the then National League in 1975.
Later, he became the Chief Executive Officer of RTU between 2008 and 2009. Mr. Kassim is a member and immediate past Chairman of the Professional Footballers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Northern Region Chapter. He assumes office as CEO of RTU with recognizable experience in football administration, social development and strategic communication.
Mr. Kassim is a professional journalist and communication expert by vocation and has been in journalism for the past 40 years.
He was the Northern Ghana Bureau Chief of the Ghanaian Chronicle newspaper between 1993 and 2003, under its founder and editor-in-chief, Mr. Kofi Koomson.
He covered the 1994 Konkomba-Nanumba-Gonja-Dagomba inter-ethnic war for the Ghanaian Chronicle and left to publish his own newspaper, The ADVOCATE, in Tamale.
He was the Vice Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association, Northern Region branch between 2003 and 2007.
Mr. Kassim is the founder of the Rural Media Network (RUMNET), a non-profit, non-governmental organization doing media advocacy and development communication in Northern Ghana for the past 25 years and played leadership roles in, and a team member of, a number of development communication and public relations consultancies for government agencies, district assemblies and NGOs in northern Ghana.
He also served in various voluntary social and public service capacities.
He was once the Vice Chairman of the Board of the West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP) Ghana, and the Chairman of the Board of the Northern Ghana Network for Development (NGND).
Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of Actionaid Ghana (AAG), an international NGO championing inclusive development in Ghana.
Kassim returns to RTU with a clear vision and a huge mission.
He says “I foresee RTU as one of Ghana’s leading football clubs with the most exciting national soccer brand. I will do that by entrenching RTU in the top four of Ghana’s premier league. That is my mission. My goal is to build RTU into an outstanding, formidable soccer brand among the top four clubs in the Ghana Premier League within three years.
“I will achieve this goal through efficient and forward-looking management. Of course it has to be with the support of a responsive board and a robust budget. These must be complemented by a proficient technical team of highfliers plus highly-motivated players and a loyal fan base. Barring any mishaps this goal should be a reality”
Kassim is so upbeat about RTU’s ability to deliver that, he reminiscences with nostalgia. “We have done it before and we can do it again. I was part of the squad of players who took Ghana football by storm and almost won the then national league in our maiden appearance during the 1978-79 season. RTU placed second to Hearts of Oak.”
He continues: “The feat was made possible by talented and highly motivated daring players, guided by an out-and-out technical team.
The players were given the best of treatments by a resourceful and committed board, a dedicated management team with a supportive nation-wide fan base.” With a tinge of self-assurance: “With a set up as cogent as this, I believe we can repeat that feat any day, even now.”
