New standoff hits NPL

Fifa normalisation chairperson Hilda Basson-Namundjebo says they will not be providing rules and methods to the Namibia Premier League (NPL), which it claims it wants to use to finalise promotions relegations ahead of the upcoming season.This follows an already lengthy standoff regarding a Fifa directive which said that no relegations and promotions should take place after the 2018/19 season, given that no first division football was played last season.After Saturday's NPL congress, the league wrote to the Fifa normalisation committee requesting that it provides the league with rules and methods to be used to promote and relegate clubs to and from the different Namibia Football Association (NFA) leagues ahead of the 2019/20 season.This request comes without the NPL having given proper information about how many clubs will feature in the league, which is scheduled to start 1 November.“The NPL wrote a letter to us requesting that we issue them with rules before they kick off. There is no communication as to how many clubs will feature in the league, which is scheduled (to kick off in) November,” Basson-Namundjebo said.“So we have responded to them asking who we are making rules for. We are not sure if it's 13, 15 or 16 clubs. So because of this reason, we won't issue rules, because we don't know who we are issuing them for.”Basson-Namundjebo also rebuffed rumours that they had received a directive from Fifa to suspend the NPL as an NFA members, because it constantly defies directives from the global football body.“I just returned from Milan, where I had meetings with Fifa. Fifa has the best interests of football at heart. However, we haven't had a discussion, as such (on suspending the NPL).“All I can say is that we need to stop making emotional decisions and allow one member to cause havoc. We have given the NPL an original letter from Fifa with the directive that there won't be any relegations, but after several meetings with them they have gone against their word and still refuse to heed the call. “Football needs to be played, not through emails and many letters, but through the amount of development taking place, how many referee courses we have organised and the level of effort going into improving the development of the women's game, and such,” Basson-Namundjebo added.NPL spokesperson Andre Gariseb said they had received the letter from the normalisation committee and that no members have complied with article 63 and submitted proposed amendments to articles 10.2 and 64.1 of the NPL constitution. The due date was Wednesday.These proposals would have aided the NPL to consider the proposed promotion of Orlando Pirates and Civics for the upcoming season.Young African's demotion was appealed to the NFA, and by virtue of the NFA constitution, the matter is to be subjected to mediation by an independent appeals committee, to be set up by the NFA and endorsed at the NFA congress, which is slated for next month.LIMBA MUPETAMI

New standoff hits NPL

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-01

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New standoff hits NPL

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-01

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