Fine for United Stars is a joke

THE decision by the Namibia Premier League’s (NPL) Disciplinary Committee to fine United Stars Football Club a mere N$100 for abandoning a match is ridiculous.

As far as I am concerned, I don’t care about the reasons that were given either by the lawyers of United Stars to ask and be granted such a lenient fine nor do I have any business on what grounds the DC members decided to arrive at that amount.The problem I have is that this decision has now opened up a situation in which teams can easily flaunt rules and regulations at will, abandon matches and even walk off the pitch knowing that only two points will be deducted and they will be asked to pay a mere N$100. What a joke!I thought the DC was a serious legal organ that took harsh decisions and in my mind, no team is supposed to mess with them because of the hefty fines they mete out. But now, we have this situation? How does one explain this to the next culprits?I called the NPL office twice to ask if there was perhaps a mistake with the figure I got on email, but it was confirmed that it was just that. One hundred Namibian dollars, that’s it. Not even US dollars.The fact that United Stars was found guilty of abandoning the match is fine, so are the goals and the points that were awarded to Arrows, but the fine is just laughable. I think it is the first time in the history of Namibian football that a DC fines a team a mere N$100. This is not even done in school sports. Think about this. This match was abandoned last season and since then, there have been tons of correspondence between the lawyers of the two teams, the league, and its DC members.The two teams were trying to put their cases across, while the league authorities kept the DC members abreast of the progress of their investigations and the DC members also had to make their own investigations.There was some cross-correspondence to and from the league to the two teams and vice versa. This cost all of them money in terms of paperwork, time and human resources. But for the league, which kind of served as the middleman and to which the two teams are affiliated, benefited nothing from this whole exercise. They don’t need to benefit in terms of huge amounts of money, but it seems that all the work, effort, time and money spent on this case have come down to a woeful N$100 going into to their coffers. That is painful for the staff at the NPL office, but obviously not for the lawyers and the members of the DC.The most disappointing factor is that the league has forked out thousands of dollars to pay the DC members’ sitting fees as they studied the case, which almost took five months.I think the DC arm of the league should lay down strict measures to avoid games being abandoned and called off by imposing hefty fines.There should simply be no negotiations when it comes to abandoning a match and related chaos on the premiership level. Teams should know that they will pay dearly or will be expelled if they come with all kinds of tricks to bring the game into disrepute.In this case, the DC arm of the league has shot itself in the foot by depriving the NPL of much-needed funds that could have paid for all the administrative work that was carried out through the whole exercise and recoup the funds they spent on the DC members. It might sound too little in the eyes of some, but the NPL, apart from its sponsors, has no other form of income and it should make use of the opportunity to fine teams to bring in the needed cash if need be.Not that they are cash-strapped or anything, but teams should learn that they must respect the rules and that the consequences of their wrongdoings carry serious financial implications.I could have suggested at least a fine of N$1 000 considering the fact that United Stars do not have a sponsor and are obviously struggling financially, but to make a mockery of the powers that the DC has and go for a mere N$100 is simply not acceptable to me. Rest assured an avenue for total chaos has now been opened up as teams will consistently refer to this case if the DC imposes heftier fines on them. corry@namibian.com.na