WINDHOEK – The Fifa-appointed Normalisation Committee (NC) for the Namibia Football Association (NFA), which recently suspended the Namibia Premier League (NPL), on Friday wrote to the NPL leadership seeking an urgent audience.
In its Friday letter, dated 11 October 2019 and which New Era Sport has also seen, the Normalisation Committee said it was concerned with the silence or no action of the NPL since their suspension and it was further worried that the league’s continued silence on the matter will jeopardise the lives of local footballers plying their trades in the country’s topflight league.
Having raised the above concerns, the Normalisation Committee thus requested an urgent meeting with the NPL leadership and all the league’s affiliates as well as both league sponsors MTC and FNB Namibia. The set date for the meeting is tomorrow, 15 October at the offices of the Namibia Sports Commission in the capital.
But on Saturday, the NPL received the Normalisation Committee’s invitation with mixed emotions as the league questioned the fundamental logic of the Normalisation Committee engaging in roundtable discussions with an NPL that is fully stripped off its rights and legal privileges.
In Saturday’s letter, which this publication have also seen, the NPL responded to the Normalisation Committee saying: “We acknowledge the receipt of the Normalisation Committee communique: NPL Suspension Engagement. In the NC suspension letter dated, 2 October 2019, it is stated that the NPL is suspended in accordance with Article 14.1 which reads that: “The Executive Committee may, however, suspend a member or a member of a member that seriously violated its obligation as a member with immediate effect. The suspension shall last until the next Congress, unless the Executive Committee has lifted the suspension in the meantime…”
“On 2 October 2019, the NC further notified the NPL that “as a consequence of this suspension, your membership rights are lost as stipulated by Article 14.3 and that as a consequence, you are to have no sporting contact with our (sic) any of our member. Points above illustrate the conditions the NC imposed on the NPL at suspension. The NPL suspension was not conditional upon a meeting with the NC. Having reserved powers to uplift the NPL suspension and having ordered a cessation of rights in accordance with Article 14.3, it logically follows that the NC must first uplift the suspension and restore the NPL’s rights before inviting the NPL to an urgent meeting.”
The league further said: “Otherwise, an invitation for an urgent meeting with the suspended NPL stripped of its rights is nugatory. In any event, the NC is well aware that an improperly constituted and unlawful meeting can never achieve lawful results…We note that the NC invited the NPL sponsors to the meeting of Tuesday, 15 October 2019. The NC is aware that at a meeting between the NPL BoG and the NC on 19 September 2019, it was requested to refrain from copying correspondence to NPL sponsors. The request is to prevent the damages caused by such conduct, which the NC to date has not indemnified the NPL.
The NPL remains committed to commence on 1 November 2019. This date was communicated to the NC at its specific request in advance, to ensure that it obtains funding for the 1st and 2nd division to commence with the NPL. As this remains an urgent matter, we trust to hear from the NC by Monday, 14 October 2019, a 12h00, failing which the NPL will move an urgent declarator together with a mandamus with cost against NC members personally in the High Court.”
But as of yesterday, the NPL sent another toned-down letter to the Normalisation Committee, in which it indicated its availability for tomorrow’s meeting.
“We refer to your letter dated 11 October 2019 and our letter dated 12 October 2019, the NPL Exco hereby confirms that it is prepared to meet the NC on Tuesday, 15 October 2019 at 18h00 as resolved by the NPL BoG on 11 September 2019, in an attempt to find a lasting solution. Kindly confirm the NC availability,” reads yesterday’s letter by the NPL.