Football committee to finalise this week
By Michael Uugwanga
THE Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) Independent committee that was appointed on September 3 to find a solution to normalise the deteriorating situation of Namibian football has said that it is hoping to finalise with its assignment by the end of this week.
The committee comprises of Thomas Mbeeli, African Union Sports Council Region 5 (AUSC) CEO Stanley Mutoya, Bro-Mathew Shinguadja, Walter Don, Roswitha Gomachas and Heritha Muyoba, who are all from diverse fields of public and private administration.
The committee was only given a month to complete its investigation into the current sour relationship between the Namibia Football Association (NFA) and the Namibia Premier League (NPL) following the expulsion of the NPL by the NFA in July, after the association accused the league’s secretariat of bringing football into disrepute after the 2018/2019 soccer season over the relegation/promotion matter involving Orlando Pirates and Civics FC.
The six-member committee was supposed to present to the Ministry of Sport through the NSC on October 3: “The committee is still having its deliberations and have not made any finding yet.
We are hoping to finalise with our assignment by end of this week,” said Mbeeli when asked by Confidente Sports Desk on progress made so far.
The committee was part of the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service’s mandate to come up with a lasting solution by instructing the NSC to speed up with the process in order for local football to resume, in particular the NPL.
Meanwhile the NFA is planning to start its own football league, while on the other hand the NPL is still waiting from the NSC regarding their application to be registered as a sports body of its own.
World football governing body FIFA last week warned the government in particular the Ministry of Sport, to refrain from interfering in football matters, otherwise Namibian football runs the risk of being suspended from international participation and all other related FIFA membership benefits.