Marco Ndlovu
Otniel Hembapu
Just in a space of a few hours after 10 clubs announced they had resigned as members of the expelled Namibia Premier League (NPL) and that they have been provisionally accepted to form part of the envisaged Namibia Football
Association (NFA) top tier league, events took another nasty twist yesterday morning.
The 10 clubs: Black Africa, Tigers, Citizens, Julinho Sporting, Mighty Gunners, Young Brazilians, Blue Waters and both relegated Civics and Orlando Pirates, as well as Young African, on Monday night, called a hasty press conference to
announce they will be joining the NFA top tier league and that their affiliation to the NPL had ceased.
The press conference was held at Palm Hotel and only selected journalists were invited to cover the presser. Speaking on behalf of the clubs at the media briefing, Lukas Nanyemba said the 10 clubs now officially fall under the NFA.
“The NFA invited clubs to apply for the premier league and these 10 clubs responded to the request and have applied for registration to the top tier league. This is in line with Article 10.3 of the NFA statutes. It requires the club to meet certain
standards and complete certain standards,” he explained.
Nanyemba added that their application has been successful as communicated by the NFA Secretariat. The letter which was seen by Nampa says the 10 clubs’ application to be registered as a member and to constitute the Top
Tier league has been successful as per article 18.1 of the NFA statutes.
The letter further advises clubs to acquaint themselves with Article 13.1 (i) of the NFA statutes, which says “clubs may not maintain any relations of a sporting nature with entities that are not recognised or members that have been suspended
or expelled”. The letter, signed by NFA acting secretary general Franco Cosmos, says the mother body’s secretariat
will now make sure that the Top Tier League is provisionally admitted to the NFA at an Executive Committee meeting scheduled for 24 October. Full admission will then be completed on 05 December at an annual ordinary meeting.
Nanyemba said with the latest developments, it means the 10 clubs have formally resigned from the NPL which was expelled by the NFA in July. “As of today, we have formally resigned from the NPL to give meaning to the above-quoted
articles in the NFA Constitution,” he explained.
Nanyemba further said out of courtesy they will inform the NPL of their decision. Nanyemba concluded by saying they are
moving forward under the NFA leadership and they are looking forward to football resuming soon.
But as of yesterday morning, the leaderships of some of the abovementioned clubs strongly came out to distance themselves from the pronouncements of the 10 clubs, with some saying their clubs never applied to be part of
the NFA league and thus Monday’s press conference was just another public relations stunt.
First to condemn Monday night’s presser was coastal giants Blue Waters executive member Knowledge Ipinge, who said the club remains part of the NPL and never applied for admission to the NFA league.
“The legitimate Blue Waters executive committee knows nothing about such arrangements (NFA league) and as far as I’m
concerned, no executive committee meeting has met to resolve on such.
We are still waiting on the club’s acting chairperson Daniel Imbili to convene a meeting for us to discuss the future of Blue Waters and resolve on the way forward,” said Ipingi.
Young Brazilians chairperson Milton Eiseb also distanced the club from the pronouncements of the said 10 clubs, saying Brazilians management is not aware of any such move and nor have they ever given authority to anyone to use
the club’s name for their agendas. “I heard about Monday night’s meeting by the clubs and I also saw the resignation letters making rounds on social media, but as the legitimate chairperson of Young Brazilians, I can confirm and put
it on record that we have never applied to the NFA league and nor have we resigned as members of the NPL.
We remain members of the NPL as per our last letter, nothing has changed. I urge the club’s supporters to ignore the rumours of the club joining the NFA league, it’s not true,” said Eiseb. Co-owner of Citizens George Ochurub, who owns a 50% stake in the club along with Dawid Goagoseb, yesterday also came out to distance the club the announcement that it had joined the NFA league, insisting that Citizens remains a member of the NPL and the club’s name was maliciously used at Monday night’s press conference.
“It’s not true at all, Citizens remains part of the NPL and what was announced on Monday is not true. As far as I’m concerned, Citizens is an NPL member and I know nothing about the other side of the story,” insisted Ochurub.
Browny Mutrifa, the chairperson Black Africa, yesterday expressed disappointment with ongoing efforts by some to try and sow division within the club and the Namibian reigning champions remain with the NPL and again reminded the club’s supporters to ignore any communication coming from outside the club’s management structure.
“The leadership of Black Africa is intact and we have not given any such mandate to anyone to register the club with the NFA. In fact, the NFA itself knows our position and from the various communications we have had with them, they (NFA)
clearly know where we stand as a club,” said Mutrifa.
-Additional info: Nampa