Cold feet or blatant denial by NPL
NPL's Andre Gariseb yesterday said the league leadership never made public announcements or statements regarding the number of clubs to compete in the MTC Premiership for 2019/20 season.
Andre Gariseb, the spokesperson for the Namibia Premier League (NPL), was responding to questions regarding the directive from the Fifa Normalisation Committee (NC) to retract public statements or announcements made earlier this month regarding the league kick-off date in September, or the number of clubs to take part in the league, or to face action.
Gariseb said they don't have anything to retract because NPL never announced the number of teams for the league to start the weekend of 13 September.
This despite Gariseb sharing information with media early in August about the draft fixtures and also despite the fact that NPL chief executive officer Harald Fuller acknowledged in an article published on 14 August (Read the constitution - Basson-Namundjebo) knowing about the fixtures and still insisted that they would start the league with 13 clubs. This after the NC instructed them to read the NFA constitution which did not give them the power to make such decisions.
Fuller had also said that an NPL executive meeting that took place in early August had resolved that the 2019/20 league season would kick off in the second week of September - despite ongoing fights among some members.
Gariseb however said having had the interest of footballers and their wellbeing in mind, and for collective engagement, the league took the logical decision to share 'draft' fixtures indicating the envisaged kick-off date only for the member clubs to peruse for inputs.
“The information that was released and published was done by someone else, at their own discretion and not NPL.
“Hence, the NC's directive on this point is based on assumptions and not facts,” Gariseb continued to argue.
“The league's genuine intention and goal is to get the ball rolling as soon as possible so that players can do what they enjoy and for fans to come and support them,” Gariseb further stated. Gariseb further said that they would look at different aspects to discuss at the annual general meeting (AGM) this weekend. These aspects include the league kick-off, which he said the exco would pronounce themselves on.
NPL had until yesterday to make a decision regarding the way forward with the league, as the NC last week Monday wrote to the domestic league leadership, giving them five days to retract the statements and to stop undermining NFA's statutes and decisions which the NC makes as a committee.
In the statement sent to NPL, the NC expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which NPL decided to declare a national dispute with the association as well as the league unilaterally announcing kick-off dates and announcing that the upcoming football season will consist of only 13 clubs as opposed to the traditional 16 teams.
The statement said that NPL's recent resolutions are in direct contravention of Article 67, which states that: “The NPL will organise competitions [the NPL championships and the NPL cup] between members and other clubs as approved by the NFA, which competitions will be regulated by this constitution and other rules which shall comply with the NFA Manual on Rules and Regulations.
“We thus place you in terms that no Arbitration Tribunal has been installed or recognised as envisaged in Article 63 of the NFA (1), in any event, the impugned decision made by the NFA executive committee is final and binding.
“The NFA executive committee thus places you on terms that it never delegated such authority [to declare dispute, announce kick-off dates and the number of teams for the new season], neither expressively nor impliedly,” reads part of the committee's letter.
“We are waiting for a response from them. If they don't respond we are ready to take further steps as directed by Fifa,” Hilda Basson-Namundjebo, chairperson of the NC, said yesterday.
LIMBA MUPETAMI
Gariseb said they don't have anything to retract because NPL never announced the number of teams for the league to start the weekend of 13 September.
This despite Gariseb sharing information with media early in August about the draft fixtures and also despite the fact that NPL chief executive officer Harald Fuller acknowledged in an article published on 14 August (Read the constitution - Basson-Namundjebo) knowing about the fixtures and still insisted that they would start the league with 13 clubs. This after the NC instructed them to read the NFA constitution which did not give them the power to make such decisions.
Fuller had also said that an NPL executive meeting that took place in early August had resolved that the 2019/20 league season would kick off in the second week of September - despite ongoing fights among some members.
Gariseb however said having had the interest of footballers and their wellbeing in mind, and for collective engagement, the league took the logical decision to share 'draft' fixtures indicating the envisaged kick-off date only for the member clubs to peruse for inputs.
“The information that was released and published was done by someone else, at their own discretion and not NPL.
“Hence, the NC's directive on this point is based on assumptions and not facts,” Gariseb continued to argue.
“The league's genuine intention and goal is to get the ball rolling as soon as possible so that players can do what they enjoy and for fans to come and support them,” Gariseb further stated. Gariseb further said that they would look at different aspects to discuss at the annual general meeting (AGM) this weekend. These aspects include the league kick-off, which he said the exco would pronounce themselves on.
NPL had until yesterday to make a decision regarding the way forward with the league, as the NC last week Monday wrote to the domestic league leadership, giving them five days to retract the statements and to stop undermining NFA's statutes and decisions which the NC makes as a committee.
In the statement sent to NPL, the NC expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which NPL decided to declare a national dispute with the association as well as the league unilaterally announcing kick-off dates and announcing that the upcoming football season will consist of only 13 clubs as opposed to the traditional 16 teams.
The statement said that NPL's recent resolutions are in direct contravention of Article 67, which states that: “The NPL will organise competitions [the NPL championships and the NPL cup] between members and other clubs as approved by the NFA, which competitions will be regulated by this constitution and other rules which shall comply with the NFA Manual on Rules and Regulations.
“We thus place you in terms that no Arbitration Tribunal has been installed or recognised as envisaged in Article 63 of the NFA (1), in any event, the impugned decision made by the NFA executive committee is final and binding.
“The NFA executive committee thus places you on terms that it never delegated such authority [to declare dispute, announce kick-off dates and the number of teams for the new season], neither expressively nor impliedly,” reads part of the committee's letter.
“We are waiting for a response from them. If they don't respond we are ready to take further steps as directed by Fifa,” Hilda Basson-Namundjebo, chairperson of the NC, said yesterday.
LIMBA MUPETAMI
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