WINDHOEK – Proceedings were not all smooth and rosy during Wednesday’s Namibia Premier League (NPL) Board of Governors (BoG) meeting in Windhoek and members of the Namibia Police Force (NamPol) had to be roped in to cool down the heated gathering.
The BoG meeting was aimed at mapping the way forward for the league as far as issues such as the kick-off date, promotion/relegation and the number of teams for the upcoming season are concerned, but the gathering quickly turned chaotic when uninvited representatives from relegated clubs Orlando Pirates, Civics and demoted Young African gatecrashed the meeting.
The disgruntled members of the uninvited clubs demanded that they be part of the meeting and that their voices be heard, but the NPL’s leadership refused to entertain such demands and asked that the representatives from all three uninvited clubs leave the room in order for the meeting to continue as planned.
But the discontented members refused to leave the room and remained firmly in their chairs, which threw the meeting into complete disorder and proceedings had to be stalled for a moment as the debate became heated and heavy words were exchanged.
Left with no option, the league’s leadership had to rely on the intervention and assistance of the police in order to remove the representatives from the three uninvited and non-member clubs. The three clubs, in the presence of the police, agreed to leave the room and allow the meeting to proceed with discussions of the agenda points.
After the storm had calm down, the meeting resolved that the NPL leadership must set up a meeting with the Fifa-appointed Normalisation Committee for the Namibia Football Association (NFA) and see how both parties can resolve the deadlock around the promotion and relegation of clubs ahead of the new season.
The meeting also resolved that a new collective agreement regarding promotion and relegation in the NPL, first and second divisions for the 2019/20 season be reached and that the Normalisation Committee provide clear guiding rules for promotion and relegation.
It was also resolved that the NPL leadership must ask the Normalisation Committee to provide the names of the clubs that will be promoted to the NPL for submission for approval at the league’s upcoming congress next weekend, September 21.
And as mandated by the clubs at Wednesday’s BoG meeting, NPL executive officer Harald Fulle yesterday wrote to the Normalisation Committee requesting an urgent meeting either for yesterday afternoon or for this morning.
In his letter which New Era Sport has seen, Fulle said the meeting will be for the NPL’s executive committee and the Normalisation Committee to meet up and iron out all pending issues, starting with the much heated relegation/promotion impasse, including seeking possible remedies that will see the first and second divisions kicking off with the NPL in the interest of all local football stakeholders.
“The NPL BoG believes that anyone with sincere interest in football is equally aware and understands that any holdup to kick-start the NPL will have a negative impact on the livelihood of players, coaching staff and sponsors. Subsequently, it will it have serious repercussions on the performance and competitiveness of the national team.
Therefore, the NPL is petitioning for the league to kick off as early as possible without any further delay,” reads part of the statement released by the NPL late yesterday as a follow-up to Fulle’s letter sent earlier to the Normalisation Committee yesterday.