… Paulino as vice-chairman
Otniel Hembapu
Windhoek
According to multiple sources at Football House and based on documents seen by New Era Sport, local prominent lawyer and influential African Stars chairman Patrick Kauta is set to become the new chairman of the Namibia Premier League (NPL).
Based on a leaked list of nominees for the various NPL positions, Kauta will vie for the chairmanship position uncontested, while his would-be deputy and Black Africa chairman, Boni Paulino, appears to have been handed the vice-chairman position also on a silver platter, as he too will run unchallenged.
Although the various nominees, including Kauta and Paulino as well as the league’s new executive committee members, will officially be fully endorsed and installed this Saturday in the capital, various clubs’ senior members have strongly maintained that no changes should be expected heading into the weekend’s NPL elective congress.
While surety rules supremely on who will be the next NPL chairman and vice-chairman, the names of various club chairpersons dominate the executive committee positions.
Although the whole new NPL leadership will officially be rubberstamped over the weekend, the new league headship will most probably be expected to officially decide and announce the league’s kickoff date within next week.
From an observatory viewpoint the recent developments within the NPL corridors indicate that massive progress has indeed been made towards restoring the unity within, and dignity of, Namibian football.
At this point in time, NPL is in dire need of Kauta and Paulino’s skills, knowledge and charisma. In fact, they couldn’t have chosen better than the two. These are two gentlemen with proven management records in the areas of public and private business management and their skills combined will definitely come in handy for the currently besieged NPL.
Finally, local football enthusiasts and the entire nation at large now have good enough reason to remain hopeful of a better day for domestic football, and lessons drawn from this fading dark chapter should serve as a clear reminder to all local football administrators to never go down that path again – the path of placing self interest ahead of footballers, the real custodians of the beautiful game.