…Mbidi denies hand in Cosafa saga
Otniel Hembapu
Windhoek
A Namibia Football Association (NFA) Emergency Committee meeting, led and chaired by NFA president Frans Mbidi and his two vice-presidents Naftali Ngalangi and Ludwig Crooks Nunuheb, yesterday reinstated NFA’s out-of-contract secretary-general Barry Rukoro, albeit, temporarily.
The committee resolved to extend Rukoro’s stay at the Football House until April 28, when the eagerly awaited NFA Executive Committee meeting takes place at Omuthiya, where a final decision regarding his future at the association will be made.
The latest development in the ongoing brouhaha between Mbidi and Rukoro was announced yesterday in the capital during a hurriedly arranged press briefing, where Mbidi said the decision to temporarily reinstate Rukoro was collectively taken at an emergency meeting yesterday.
FIFA Development Officer David Fani, who is in the country to interrogate the ongoing NFA squabbles, observed the meeting. He instructed Mbidi to forward a copy of Rukoro’s employment contract to all 11 executive committee members so that they too can freely peruse the various clauses in the contract before arriving at an independent and well-informed decision ahead of the Omuthiya meeting.
Yesterday’s meeting also resolved that the NFA should seek legal advice on how the heated issue of Rukoro’s contract should be resolved and also legal advice on the pending matter of his suspension by the Confederation of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa).
The NFA Emergency Committee felt that Cosafa did not advance enough justification as to why Rukoro was suspended and have requested the sub-continental football body to provide more information around the reported scuffle between Rukoro and Cosafa president Phillip Chiyangwa, which led to Rukoro’s suspension by Cosafa.
Mbidi, who is also the vice-president of Cosafa, yesterday distanced himself from rumours that he was working in cahoots with Chiyangwa to topple Rukoro as head of the NFA Secretariat, saying he has no hand in the suspension of Rukoro by Cosafa and will never go to such extremes.