NFC to seal deal with NFA despite hiccups in football

THE Namibia Football Consortium (NFC) will today sign a historic N$40 million deal with the Namibia Football Association (NFA), despite the ongoing arbitration case, undecided promotion playoffs and no date in sight for the kick-off of the domestic leagues.

The five-year deal is expected to be signed, sealed and delivered to the NFA this evening despite an earlier decision by the NFC not to commit themselves to sign before the NFA “gets its house in order”. The main partner in tonight’s sponsorship deal is Mobile Telecommunications (MTC), which will have a 50 per cent share of the cake, while First National Bank (FNB) and Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) will have 25 percent each.The three companies will be the sole sponsors of all football activities under the NFA’s jurisdiction in the country for the next five years.The NFC has been in charge since their first deal was signed in 2001.The NFC is expected to invest N$8 million into the game per year, which will for the leagues, development programmes and the various national teams.MTC managing director Bengt Strenge said although the sponsors wanted the NFA to sort out its mess first, they would say at the signing ceremony why the NFC and NFA had decided to clinch the deal.”I cannot give an answer on that.Wait until tomorrow,” he said.The long-awaited outcome of the Life Fighters arbitration case is only expected to be known “sometime this week”.The two teams that will be promoted to the Namibia Premier League (NPL) also still need to be determined, pending the outcome of the arbitration case.The lawyer who is expected to give the judgement on the case, Deon Obbes, told The Namibian Sport that he would only be able to pronounce himself on that “sometime this week”.He said he was waiting for transcripts of the recordings made by the involved parties.”Only after that can I make a judgement, but at this stage, I have not received anything,” he said.Obbes was chosen as the arbitrator in the case by the Namibia Sport Commission (NSC) after the NFA sought advice as they failed to resolve the issue, which has been dragging on for at least three months now.The arbitration case started a few weeks after the conclusion of the domestic league in August, and has been the major cause of the delay in the signing of the sponsorship deal.It has also left league administrators without a fixtures list for the next season, as the two teams that stand to be promoted have not been decided yet.The arbitration case, which involves Life Fighters and the NPL, stems from the NPL’s decision to award Tigers the match points after Life Fighters failed to arrange enough security guards for their match at the Mokati Stadium in Otjiwarongo last season.The lower divisions can also not start their matches, as promotion-playoff matches still need to be completed, while the recently introduced structure creating a Southern Zone and Northern Zone for first-division sides is also under fire from clubs.The arbitration case has further led to the indefinite postponement of the Humphries Security Guard Division’s tournament with prize money of N$100 000 for premiership sides.The main partner in tonight’s sponsorship deal is Mobile Telecommunications (MTC), which will have a 50 per cent share of the cake, while First National Bank (FNB) and Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) will have 25 percent each.The three companies will be the sole sponsors of all football activities under the NFA’s jurisdiction in the country for the next five years.The NFC has been in charge since their first deal was signed in 2001.The NFC is expected to invest N$8 million into the game per year, which will for the leagues, development programmes and the various national teams.MTC managing director Bengt Strenge said although the sponsors wanted the NFA to sort out its mess first, they would say at the signing ceremony why the NFC and NFA had decided to clinch the deal.”I cannot give an answer on that.Wait until tomorrow,” he said.The long-awaited outcome of the Life Fighters arbitration case is only expected to be known “sometime this week”.The two teams that will be promoted to the Namibia Premier League (NPL) also still need to be determined, pending the outcome of the arbitration case.The lawyer who is expected to give the judgement on the case, Deon Obbes, told The Namibian Sport that he would only be able to pronounce himself on that “sometime this week”.He said he was waiting for transcripts of the recordings made by the involved parties.”Only after that can I make a judgement, but at this stage, I have not received anything,” he said.Obbes was chosen as the arbitrator in the case by the Namibia Sport Commission (NSC) after the NFA sought advice as they failed to resolve the issue, which has been dragging on for at least three months now.The arbitration case started a few weeks after the conclusion of the domestic league in August, and has been the major cause of the delay in the signing of the sponsorship deal.It has also left league administrators without a fixtures list for the next season, as the two teams that stand to be promoted have not been decided yet.The arbitration case, which involves Life Fighters and the NPL, stems from the NPL’s decision to award Tigers the match points after Life Fighters failed to arrange enough security guards for their match at the Mokati Stadium in Otjiwarongo last season.The lower divisions can also not start their matches, as promotion-playoff matches still need to be completed, while the recently introduced structure creating a Southern Zone and Northern Zone for first-division sides is also under fire from clubs.The arbitration case has further led to the indefinite postponement of the Humphries Security Guard Division’s tournament with prize money of N$100 000 for premiership sides.