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Home / Kauta, Haingura CAS appeal thrown out 

Kauta, Haingura CAS appeal thrown out 

2020-04-27  Otniel Hembapu

Kauta, Haingura CAS appeal thrown out 

Namibia Premier League (NPL) chairman Patrick Kauta and former head of the Northern East First Division Mpasi Haingura’s appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the Namibia Football Association (NFA) was on Friday thrown out by CAS after the two appellants failed to pay their advance of costs on time. 

Kauta and Haingura both petitioned CAS to contest their disqualification from February’s elective congress of the NFA, where they were both barred from contesting for any positions at congress, which overwhelmingly elected Ranga Haikali as president.
Kauta was according to the NFA disqualified because he is an active member of the suspended NPL and could thus not qualify to run for positions. Another reason for disqualification, the NFA indicated at the time, was that Kauta participated in the removal of a sitting president (former NFA president Frans Mbidi). 

But Kauta denied all these claims. Haingura on the other hand was also disqualified for participating in the removal of a sitting president. 
This led to both Kauta and Haingura launching an appeal with CAS, and cited the outgoing Fifa installed Normalisation Committee for the NFA as the first respondent and president-elect Haikali as the second respondent in the matter.

As per CAS standard procedures, all parties to the case were requested to pay their advance of costs to the Swiss-based court on or before 20 April. For its part, the NFA as the respondents said they have no intention of paying their advance of costs and thus left the entire legal bill with both Kauta and Haingura to pay if they wanted the appeal to proceed
Kauta and Haingura, who are being represented by local law firm Tjitemisa & Associates, failed to meet the payment deadline of 20 April with Kauta only making payment two days late on 22 April and Haingura asking CAS for an extension to make payment.

Due to the duo’s failure to meet payment deadline, CAS asked NFA if it would grant the duo a grace period to make amends on their payment failure so that the appeal proceeds. But the NFA refused to give CAS such consent and threw Kauta and Haingura’s appeal in jeopardy.
“I note that the first appellant (Kauta) paid his share of the advance of costs on 22 April and that the second appellant (Haingura) filed a request for extension to pay the advance of costs on 23 April, whereas the time limit to pay the advance of costs expired on 20 April. Accordingly, the first appellant’s payment and the Second appellant’s request for extension are late and Article R64.2 (2) of the Code of Sports-related. […] In the absence of payment of the advance of costs by the appellants within the prescribed deadline, the present appeal shall be deemed withdrawn and a termination order will be rendered in due course, pursuant to Article R64.2 of the Code of Sports-related Arbitration.”


2020-04-27  Otniel Hembapu

Tags: Khomas
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