CAS appeal outcome postponed to next month
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday deferred the announcement of the final outcome in a case between the expelled Namibia Premier League (NPL) and the Namibia Football Association (NFA) to next month.
CAS was initially expected to deliver the final arbitral award to the two parties yesterday, but in their latest communiqué released to both the NFA and NPL, CAS said it had now extended the date for the deliverance of the final arbitral award to 30 June 2021.
“On behalf of the deputy president of the CAS Appeals Arbitration Division, please be advised that the time limit to communicate the arbitral award to the parties, pursuant
to Article R59 of the Code of Sports-related Arbitration, has been extended until 30 June 2021,” reads CAS letter.
The Swiss-based court of sport has for months been seized with a long-running legal battle between the local football association
and the banished NPL, where the expelled league is fighting to have its expulsion overturned.
Members of the NPL leadership, who were also expelled from all football activities by the NFA, are also asking CAS to override that decision and have their rights reinstated.
Following the expulsion of the NPL as an affiliate, the NFA proceeded to establish the new Namibia Premier Football League (NPFL), which it now recognises as the country’s only top tier football league.
TheNPLwasfirstsuspended by the NFA in October 2019 for continued insubordination and for bringing football into disrepute, after it refused to readmit three relegated clubs (Orlando Pirates, Civics and Young African) back into the league to be part of the new season.
The decision to ban the NPL was later further upheld at the NFA’s elective congress in February the following year, after a substantial 19 out of 21 delegates voted in favour of expelling the league, while only two delegates voted against it.