Otniel Hembapu
Windhoek-After a devastating absence of more than a year and a half, the Namibia Premier League (NPL) was officially launched in the capital yesterday, with MTC and FNB jointly throwing their weight behind the league with a combined sponsorship of N$20 million to ensure the 2017/18 football season kick starts unhindered on Friday.
Telecommunication giant MTC were yesterday unveiled as the NPL’s headline sponsor with a sponsorship of N$15 million per annum over three years, while retail banking leaders FNB Namibia were also unveiled as the league’s co-sponsor with a N$5 million sponsorship per annum – also over three years.
With MTC sponsoring N$15 million per year, it will bring their total sponsorship to N$45 million over the period, while FNB’s N$5 million per year will amount to a total of N$15 million over the three years of their sponsorship duration.
This means by the end of the three-years sponsorship period, both MTC and FNB would have by pumped roughly over N$60 million into the NPL.
Speaking at the launch yesterday, NPL chairman Patrick Kauta announced that the 2017/18 season league winners will walk away with N$1 million in prize monies.
Equally, for the new season, all 16 league clubs will each receive a N$65,000 monthly grant from the NPL over a period of 10 months to assist clubs with administrative and operational undertakings.
On his part, MTC’s Tim Ekandjo said they were pleased to be back on board with the NPL and further thanked all those that were instrumental in negotiations between the league and MTC.
He was, however, quick to caution the league’s new leadership to avoid schoolboy politics that have the potential to harm or bring local premiership football into disrepute.
As he has done with previous NPL administrations, Ekandjo also advised the new NPL executive to put transparency, accountability and effective administration at the forefront of daily functions, saying under no circumstances will MTC allow a single cent from their sponsorship to be misused or misappropriated.
On their part, FNB, represented by E-Bank sales manager Jerry Elago, called for lasting unity within the local football fraternity and for the league’s leadership to always put the players’ interests first in whatever they do.
“From now on going forward, let us focus on the things we agree on and not on the ones we disagree about,” Elago advised.