Carlos Kambaekwa
Windhoek-Precisely 32 years now since the country’s elite football clubs sent shockwaves in domestic football by severing ties with the now-defunct South West Africa Football Association (SWAFA) – the same teams are at it again.
Popularly known in local football circles as the Katutura big four – African Stars, Black Africa, Orlando Pirates and Tigers are leading an exodus of defectors from the troubled Namibia Premier League (NPL) to form a rebel league.
New Era Sport is in possession of a communication between the aggrieved clubs and the country’s elite football league, the Namibia Premier League (NPL) Interim Committee, in which the clubs are seeking to trigger a clause in article 28 (1) of the NPL constitution, adopted in July 2003.
Both Black Africa and Blue Waters wrote identical letters to the NPL requesting the embattled league to convene a general assembly within three months where they intend to table a motion for the dissolution of the NPL.
“We believe the dissolution of the NPL is the best course of action in the current situation, notably in how the NFA effectively dissolved the NPL Interim Committee.
“NFA unlawfully appointed its Ad-hoc Committee without consultation with the relevant party, in this case, the NPL Board of Governors (BoG) – thereby taking over management of the league,” reads part of the letter verbatim.
The letter further states that the fact the country’s flagship football league has not kicked off for a whole season effectively means the league has in fact dissolved.
In another twist, grounded chairman of the dissolved NPL IC, Franco Cosmos, wrote a strongly worded letter to the country’s football governing body, the NFA, challenging its decision to dissolve the NPL IC.
“After you insisted the NPL Interim Committee was unlawfully created by legitimate members of its organ – NFA Ad-Hoc Committee was established where Roger Kambatuku was appointed chairman and I installed as his deputy. Subsequently in my respective view, the Ad-hoc Committee is itself unlawful.”
Cosmos further stated it’s now almost a month since the establishment of the NFA Ad-Hoc Committee and to cause more harm than good, its creation was necessitated based on the Executive Committee that the NPL Interim Committee is unlawful.
Last month, the NPL IC resolved the establishment of arbitration as enjoined by article 56.1 of the NFA Manual adopted last October by the NFA Executive.