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Football’s revered legacy down the drain – Ekandjo

2020-07-22  Otniel Hembapu

Football’s revered legacy down the drain – Ekandjo

…MTC revokes N$15 million promise

Otniel Hembapu 

MTC’s Tim Ekandjo was yesterday at pains describing the expulsion of the Namibia Premier League (NPL) through a resolution at the 16th extra-ordinary congress of the Namibia Football Association (NFA) over the weekend.
During a brief presser in the capital yesterday, Ekandjo announced that MTC has taken a decision to backtrack on their promise of holding on to the N$15 million budget allotted to the NPL for the dormant 2019/20 season until September this year with the hope that the league would have then sorted out its scuffles with its mother body NFA.
Following the league’s expulsion by the FA at the weekend, a move that has since technically reduced NPL to levels of a “bush league”, MTC has now thought it wise to immediately terminate its historic 16-year old relationship with the league and the N$15 million budget earlier reserved for the start of the league has also been revoked with effect.
“You would recall that MTC already announced that we will not renew our contract with the NPL once the season comes to an end. The current season was supposed to have ended in May 2020, however, we were more than generous to give the NPL four extra months till the end of September 2020, to either get the league started or forfeit their entire budget,” he said. 
Reflecting on MTC’s commitment and investment into the NPL for the last 16 years, Ekandjo said it was a sad episode for football and a revered legacy gone down the drain – something the leadership of football must live with and account for.
“We kept our promise, however, now that the NPL is officially expelled by the NFA and therefore now a non-existent body, this automatically makes any agreement we had with the NPL null and void and they have therefore by virtue of their expulsion forfeited their entire budget and any other obligations we might have with them. We will no longer be holding this budget till end of September and this will bring our 16-year old relationship in which we invested over N$168 million to a very sad end. It is indeed a sad development for football seeing that MTC and NPL shared a rich history that spans for many years, and seeing it going down the drain in this manner is rather disappointing and a decision the leadership of football will have to live with.”
MTC recently announced N$13.5 million sponsorship towards the MTC NFA Cup for the next three years and have taken over the Dr Hage Geingob Cup and the MTC Hopsol Youth Soccer League amongst other sports codes.
-ohembapu@nepc.com.na


2020-07-22  Otniel Hembapu

Tags: Khomas
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