NFA to put foot down on arbitration case

THE executive committee of the Namibia Football Association (NFA) is today expected to announce if the arbitration case involving Life Fighters and the Namibia Premier League (NPL) will continue or not.

The committee convened a meeting late yesterday at Soccer House to find a solution to the drawn-out case, which has thrown domestic football into turmoil. The case has caused the delay of the promotion playoffs that were due to be completed at the end of the season in May.The case stems from a ruling by the NPL, which awarded three match points to Tigers after Life Fighters failed to arrange enough security guards for a league match in Otjiwarongo last season.Match officials who were assigned to handle the match claimed that the shortage of security personnel meant their lives would be in danger and decided to call off the match before it started.Life Fighters appealed to the NFA Appeals Committee, but did not succeed in their bid as the committee felt that their case was irrelevant.Instead, the NFA Appeals Committee granted Life Fighters an arbitration, which has so far not been concluded because of a lack of consensus among the respondents in the case, despite the appointment of an arbitrator to tackle the issue.The respondents identified in this case are the Namibia National Referees Committee, Tigers Football Club and other witnesses, but they have ignored meetings called for them to state their side of the story.Yesterday, NFA spokesperson Beau Kauta confirmed to journalists that the NFA executive committee would “try to speed up the process” at the meeting last night.He could not say whether the executive committee would take a binding decision on the case, but said they would “try to help the involved parties to reach a consensus and resolve the case for the sake of the game”.The Namibian Sport has reliably learnt that Life Fighters will refuse to accept any decision by the NFA executive committee that will disadvantage them.A prominent club official said they would fight the case in accordance with the approved procedures, but would not accept a unilateral decision by the NFA.”The people who are involved in the case should all tell their stories, and the arbitrator should then make his decision, according to the laid-down rules.We don’t want the matter to be bulldozed by the NFA, just because they are the mother body,” the official said.The case has delayed the announcement of the league kick-off, while the annual Humphries Security Guard Division tournament, which was due to be played this weekend, has also been postponed.However, the most serious consequence of the dispute is that the Namibia Football Consortium (NFC) is refusing to sign a N$40 million football sponsorship deal for the next five years because of the unresolved case.The NFC and the NFA were on the brink of signing the sponsorship agreement.The consortium consists of Mobile Telecommunication Limited (MTC), First National Bank (FNB) and the Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL).Kauta has indicated that the deal will be signed towards the end of the month, depending on the finalisation of the arbitration case.The case has caused the delay of the promotion playoffs that were due to be completed at the end of the season in May.The case stems from a ruling by the NPL, which awarded three match points to Tigers after Life Fighters failed to arrange enough security guards for a league match in Otjiwarongo last season.Match officials who were assigned to handle the match claimed that the shortage of security personnel meant their lives would be in danger and decided to call off the match before it started.Life Fighters appealed to the NFA Appeals Committee, but did not succeed in their bid as the committee felt that their case was irrelevant.Instead, the NFA Appeals Committee granted Life Fighters an arbitration, which has so far not been concluded because of a lack of consensus among the respondents in the case, despite the appointment of an arbitrator to tackle the issue.The respondents identified in this case are the Namibia National Referees Committee, Tigers Football Club and other witnesses, but they have ignored meetings called for them to state their side of the story.Yesterday, NFA spokesperson Beau Kauta confirmed to journalists that the NFA executive committee would “try to speed up the process” at the meeting last night.He could not say whether the executive committee would take a binding decision on the case, but said they would “try to help the involved parties to reach a consensus and resolve the case for the sake of the game”.The Namibian Sport has reliably learnt that Life Fighters will refuse to accept any decision by the NFA executive committee that will disadvantage them.A prominent club official said they would fight the case in accordance with the approved procedures, but would not accept a unilateral decision by the NFA.”The people who are involved in the case should all tell their stories, and the arbitrator should then make his decision, according to the laid-down rules.We don’t want the matter to be bulldozed by the NFA, just because they are the mother body,” the official said.The case has delayed the announcement of the league kick-off, while the annual Humphries Security Guard Division tournament, which was due to be played this weekend, has also been postponed.However, the most serious consequence of the dispute is that the Namibia Football Consortium (NFC) is refusing to sign a N$40 million football sponsorship deal for the next five years because of the unresolved case.The NFC and the NFA were on the brink of signing the sponsorship agreement.The consortium consists of Mobile Telecommunication Limited (MTC), First National Bank (FNB) and the Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL).Kauta has indicated that the deal will be signed towards the end of the month, depending on the finalisation of the arbitration case.