I took note of the NPL’s position paper on promotion and relegation through social media platforms and denounce it in its entirety – I am not impressed. This position paper is the biggest joke I have ever encountered in Namibian football history.
It shows sheer arrogance, disrespect and self-centredness. Football in Namibia does not only revolve around the Namibia Premier League (NPL) and its members, for heaven sake. For starters, NPL is suspended by the Fifa-appointed Normalisation Committee (NC) for the Namibia Football Association (NFA) and they know the reasons; Namibian football lovers are fully aware of all the details.
Football needs to be normalised, and that is exactly what is going to happen going forward. The position paper evolves around same issues and this is tantamount to insanity. Countless times, the NPL was invited by the NC to find common ground but they (NPL) instead wanted their egos to be massaged. Now, they are putting forward an illogical position paper on promotion and relegation to fit their agenda.
Of the three proposed options, only one part of the three proposed alternatives makes sense, as the other options cannot and should not be entertained at all. On the NPL’s proposed way forward, I do not even want to comment, since it has all the tactics of “botsotso style”.
So, the contingency plan of NPL comes handy to bankroll the proposed ridiculous play-offs, but nobody thought of the contingency plan back then, which should have been utilised to kick-start the First Divisions.
What hypocrisy is this?
The NPL even have the guts of saying “Thus, there was no abnormality in the NPL and that the abnormality is in the First Division of the 2018/2019”. Please be reminded that relegation and promotion, or vice versa, are inextricably linked.
I take my hat off and respect those individuals who really want the league to start. Various valid reasons have been articulated to that effect, which I totally concur with but we need to normalise things before we can proceed.
Let us desist from the blame game and be bold enough to call our immediate football mafias who are in the hierarchy to order. Why look further away to be cynical and judgemental while you can be bold and firm enough to look one another in the eyes as friends and colleagues, advising one another to stop holding football hostage.
NPL hierarchy must introspect and normalise itself to act in good faith – and once football is normalised after the congress in 2020, they can seamlessly move on. If they cannot normalise themselves, then what are NPL members doing to normalise the hierarchy?
With NPL’s position paper on promotion and relegation, I have to admit we are ten steps backwards. How can you solve a wrong with another wrong and in the process create more chaos?