Otniel Hembapu

WINDHOEK – The headship of the beleaguered Namibia Premier League (NPL) were yesterday left kicking their heels in frustration after the league’s want-away principal bankroller MTC rejected its request for funding towards a planned pre-season tournament.
The NPL recently approached both the league’s joint sponsors MTC and FNB Namibia with a proposal to have the league’s existing multi million-dollar sponsorship agreement turned or converted into a tournament sponsorship agreement, with the envisioned tournament earmarked for the league’s remaining 13 member clubs in March.
The suspended NPL, which is also rumoured to be facing a serious financial squeeze, as part of its plans for the intended pre-season tournament also requested clubs to register all their players on or before 20 February and also pay membership fees to the tune of N$50 000 per club.
But as of yesterday, New Era Sport independently established that MTC had rejected the league’s proposition to convert the existing multi million dollar sponsorship agreement into a tournament sponsorship agreement, as the local telecommunications giant resolved to keep the standing sponsorship agreement intact.
This development was also later further confirmed by MTC’s Chief Human Capital and Corporate Affairs Officer Tim Ekandjo, who upon enquiry said; “I can confirm that MTC have considered the NPL’s proposal to convert the sponsorship agreement into a tournament agreement and after carefully considering all the facts, we have declined this request and have committed to the NPL that MTC will continue to hold the sponsorship amount until such time that the league resumes and if that does not happen before the end of our financial year, the sponsorship money will be forfeited.”
Also contacted for comment yesterday was FNB Namibia’s Sponsorship and Promotions Manager Gordon Pokolo, who said the bank was considering the NPL’s proposal and will in the next few days communicate their standpoint as far as the request to convert the current sponsorship agreement into a tournament agreement is concerned.
“I’m aware of MTC’s decision (rejection) with regard to the league’s request but from our side here at FNB, we will internally soon have a sit and look at all aspects of this request before making an informed decision. So we will soon communicate our decision in that regard as we still have to consider the request,” briefly said Pokolo, who some months ago expressed his growing concern with the league’s decaying status.