Africa-Press – Namibia. INTERNATIONAL football governing body Fifa and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) are finding it “difficult” to reconcile a Namibian football fraternity divided by petty “personal issues”.
Perhaps they will have a workable solution to the impasse by the end of January when a road map is expected. This is the account of two prominent football officials familiar with proceedings involving Fifa and CAF’s joint intervention mission in Namibia last week.
Both sources chose anonymity given their close proximity to the prevailing issues. “Some want to reconcile, but others said they would only do so if the people they do not like are not part of the NFA structure,” one source said last week.
A four-member Fifa-CAF delegation met with dismissed Namibia Football Association (NFA) president Ranga Haikali, his nemesis and NFA secretary general Franco Cosmos, the disbanded NFA executive committee, and other stakeholders.
The envoys also briefed the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service on their visit. After assessing “the overall situation of the NFA, following the course of events of the past few months” they, however, failed to pronounce themselves.
The most prominent of the events referred to was the expulsion of the entire NFA executive committee at the annual NFA congress in December. “It was evident that it is not as easy as they thought, so the soonest we can expect [feedback] will be by end January. The relationship between the parties is irreconcilable. It’s more personal than football related,” the other source said.
Fifa reportedly advised the expelled officials to prove that the ordinary congress, where they were relieved of their duties, was held outside the perimeters of NFA statutes.
Nonetheless, preparations for elections to usher in a new leadership are afoot. “The electoral process has begun. Tentatively, the elections will be held around 25 March.”
The elections are, however, dependant on Fifa releasing funds to the cash-strapped national football association. The resumption of the transitional league football season also depends on Fifa’s support.
“The Fifa representatives said the body would provide funds to conclude the leagues, and to pay for all other outstanding payments.” Fifa admitted to an oversight in not intervening before the now-infamous annual congress took place, both sources said.
“The situation is very difficult. They can’t overturn what transpired at the congress, but they are also unhappy with what happened.” Jean-Jacques Diène, who heads the office of the CAF’s secretary general, led the task force.
The other emissaries were Rolf Tanner, the head of member associations governance at Fifa, Solomon Mudege, the group leader of development programmes at Fifa, and Fifa’s regional office development manager, David Fani.
“It’s personality issues. As long as the roots of the problems are not diagnosed and treated, we will find ourselves with the same problem every time – mark my words. Because individuals, when they get positions, behave like they own the football association,” the more senior of the two sources said.
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