‘Static’ NPFL pleads for patience
Director of the envisaged breakaway Namibia Premier Football League (NPFL), Mabos Vries, is pleading with local football clubs and fans to be patient with them as they try to sort out the necessary aspects to return domestic football.
Vries said this in an interview with Nampa after some football personalities recently expressed their frustration with repeated postponement of the re-start of the local league. The Namibia Football Association (NFA) announced last week that the league will kick off on 17 April this year.
Vries said preparations are at an advanced stage and it will only be fair for the public to give ample time to those in charge to ensure the return of the league.
“I understand the concern because they don’t know the format we are going to use that will show from when up to when the league will be played. They should just be patient with us, we are just adding the final touches to the preparations and we will give the information once we are done,” said Vries.
Late last year, it was reported that the NPFL will kick off in January this year but that did not happen, and it was again reported that the NPFL will start this month (February) upon conclusion of the recentlyended 2021 African Nations Championship (Chan), where Namibia also participated – but again, that did also not happen. Just a few weeks ago, for the umpteenth time, the NFA announced that the NPFL kick off date had now been moved to 17 April.
Tigers Sports Club chairperson Dino Ballotti said it is very frustrating for the team to be informed that the league is starting, then all of a sudden it is postponed again, as it has financial implications because the team cannot call players to train without contracts and when players have contracts they have to be paid.
“We are frustrated by the constant postponement of the league, from the club’s side we want to start but there are immediate financial implications. If you start training tomorrow then perhaps there is another postponement, then the club will take on the financial commitment especially in this day and age where we are trying to move to a semi-professional league where players cannot train for free,” said Ballotti.
Former Namibia Football Players Union (NAFPU) secretary general Olsen Kahiriri said football administrators promising the re-start of the league are not realistic because domestic leagues in other countries are about to end as per the Fifa calendar.
“They want to start the league cosmetically, can these people tell the nation what they have done during all this time they have been in the office, earning salaries every month. They are doing this because of public pressure, and everything that is done through pressure will not succeed,” said Kahiriri. He added that the league’s constitution is not yet shared with the public and nobody knows how it is going to operate.