Easy access at the tip of your fingers, subscribe to our daily ePaper version of our New Era Newspaper.
Home / Clubs endorse league kick off date ...FNB, MTC ready to sponsor
Clubs endorse league kick off date ...FNB, MTC ready to sponsor
2017-10-13Staff Report 2 Otniel Hembapu Windhoek-All 16 clubs of the Namibia Premier League (NPL) collectively agreed and fully endorsed next Friday, 20 October, as the new official kick-off date for the NPL’s 2017/18 football season, and also adopted fixtures for the new season. The resolutions were taken at Wednesday’s NPL Board of Governors (BoG) meeting held in the capital, which also touched on the league’s budget for the upcoming season as well as other pending nitty-gritties standing in the way of the league’s kick off. Heading into Wednesday’s BoG meeting, the fever was high, as most local football fans expected the BoG meeting to seriously deliberate and shed more light on a highly contested letter authored by Black Africa interim chairman Cassius Moetie. The letter pointed to certain processes that the NPL executive failed to follow in coming up with the league’s kick-off date and also on calling the BoG meeting as well as other gatherings. In the letter, Moetie highlighted that certain clubs could pick the NPL’s flaws up and drag the league to court to try and call off the NPL’s kick off or possibly all its activities. But to the relief of many, sources informed New Era Sport that Moetie’s letter was not entertained at Wednesday’s meeting, with NPL chairman Patrick Kauta and his team apparently insisting that Moetie’s grievances will not be entertained as he was not on the books of NPL as a club chairman and that some of the points he raised in the letter were wrongly misinterpreted and factually off beam. “We could not entertain Moetie’s letter because he is not even on our books as any club’s chairman but only attended Wednesday’s meeting as an interim Black Africa chairman. So, we were under no obligation to accord his letter any attention. On the NPL books, we have Bonni Paulinho as Black Africa chairman but he has since also resigned and now serves fully as NPL vice-chairman. “The issues that he raised in that letter were somehow surprising because Moetie knows very well why we bypassed certain provisions and why we had to only focus on the ones that were important in making sure the league starts. It was a collective agreement among all 16 clubs and we took those decisions with the blessings of NFA and Fifa. That’s why Fifa even gave us new registration dates and so forth,” said one club official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. On league sponsors, New Era Sport understands that an agreement with First National Bank (FNB) Namibia was reached and signed off early this week. Although the figures and the duration of the sponsorship deal remains a secret, reliable sources at the bank and within the NPL confirmed that FNB will be one of the league’s new sponsors for the upcoming season. While MTC has already been confirmed as one of the league sponsors, it is rumoured that Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) is still pondering its options and is yet to finalise a deal with the NPL. 2017-10-13Staff Report 2
