African Stars Football Club and the MTC HopSol Youth League are on the brink of a massive legal face-off.
This follows the youth league’s decision not to welcome Stars’ youth teams into the league due to external pressure from the Namibia Football Association (NFA), New Era Sport has learned.
The source, who is part of the MTC HopSol Youth League management team, confirmed that Stars’ leadership through their lawyers are challenging the decision by the league not to include the club’s junior teams into their structures and have given the leadership of the league until today to respond to their demands.
“To be quite honest, this whole issue between Stars and the league is coming from the everyday politics between Stars chairman Patrick Kauta and the NFA guys. Remember, Kauta also happens to be the chairman of the Namibia Premier League (NPL), which currently has a case against NFA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland. Now their fights are trickling down to the MTC HopSol Youth League and kids are about to be denied an opportunity to showcase their talents and live their dreams.
There are more than 1 800 youngsters playing in the MTC HopSol Youth League, so if this issue between Stars and the league is not solved, it will affect the teams badly. The NFA guys do not want the league to be associated with Stars because of Kauta, and that’s the truth. Now, those innocent kids who happen to be under Stars’ youth teams and the other teams are now being punished for something that has nothing to do with them. It is sad, they must keep their politics to themselves,” said the source.
Stars director Salomo Hei yesterday confirmed that they had written to the league seeking clarity as to why their youth teams were kicked out and until both parties are convinced that the decision was not externally influenced, they have no choice but to legally challenge the league and have their teams integrated into the league.
Hei, who suspects that the league’s leadership was forced by external forces to punish Stars, said they instructed their lawyers to ensure that league proceedings are not allowed to continue until their grievances are fully addressed.
NFA secretary general Franco Cosmos yesterday strongly distanced the association from the Stars and MTC HopSol Youth League fracas, saying they are not party to the matter and nor do they involve themselves in legal matters concerning their members.
“No, no! It’s not true at all. We are not involved in those issues between Stars and the league, why are they bringing the NFA’s name into their things? It’s not fair. As I understand, the matter between those two is now sub judice, so I won’t bother commenting further on it. But to answer your questions, no the NFA is not involved and does not influence the decisions of the MTC HopSol Youth League,” said Cosmos.