Hesron Kapanga
A lack of financial policies has left the Namibia Football Association (NFA) with no alternative but to await its members’ decision on alleged financial mismanagement by its Khomas Football Region (KFR) executive committee.
Football clubs plying their trade in the KFR second division are up in arms with their leadership, whom they accuse of not paying their start-up capital for the just-ended 2022/23 season.
The NFA paid an amount of N$208 000 to the KFR for its administrative costs and the N$19 200 annual allowance the KFR should dispense to its clubs. On the first payment at the start of the season, the 16 clubs were supposed to receive 50% start-up capital, which was calculated at N$9 600 for the running of their day-to-day activities.
To date, that start-up capital has not been received by any of the football clubs in that division, which forced members to approach the NFA for assistance, accusing its league director David Goagoseb and chairperson Peter Ndjulu of misusing funds intended for clubs for their personal use.
In a letter dated 2 August 2023, seen by this agency, the NFA in response advised the KFR to hold an extraordinary annual congress to resolve its matters as it did not want to intervene.
A club owner in the KFR who chose to remain anonymous told this agency that club owners have approached the football association to provide them with bank statements for money that was transferred to the KRF account so they could open a criminal case against their leadership, but that call has fallen on deaf ears.
In an interview with Nampa on Tuesday, NFA secretary general Jochen Traut said they are aware of the situation, but as NFA, they cannot interfere.
“We set up meetings with the Khomas leadership twice, but those meetings did not happen as they never turned up and told us it was short notice. As an association, we cannot answer to members as they have leadership in place, hence, we advised them to have an extraordinary annual general meeting – which has not taken place yet,” he said.
Traut added that the financial mismanagement stories were widely reported by the different second-division leagues last season, but that will be a story of the past.
“Khomas and other regions complained of not receiving their start-up capital, but I can confidently tell you that despite the Khomas teams not receiving their initial start-up capital, we paid their remaining 50% directly to the clubs’ accounts. We are still waiting for the Khomas leadership to give us their financial report,” he said, adding that the association has no policies in place that would sanction them to punish those misusing funds, but NFA is currently working on putting policies in place that will prevent this from reoccurring.
Approached for comment, Goagoseb told this agency that he was not able to answer any questions and directed this reporter to get responses from the NFA, while Ndjulu’s phone went unanswered. – Nampa