Africa-Press – Namibia. FIFA will attempt to arrest the decay of Namibian football when a remedial envoy jets into the country next week.
In conjunction with the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the world football governing body said it will deploy a mission to Windhoek on 12 January “to assess the overall situation of the NFA (Namibia Football Association) following the course of events of the past few months”.
“The relevant respective Fifa and CAF representatives will be announced in due course,” Fifa chief member associations officer Kenny Jen-Marie stated in his letter to the NFA on Wednesday.
It is hoped that the three-day visit will yield tangible results with regard to reviving the game domestically by uniting the warring factions. The last CAF/Fifa-sanctioned mission to Namibia in November, headed by CAF secretary general Veron Mosengo Omba, had little effect on the prevailing power struggle within the NFA.
After holding crisis talks with several stakeholders, Mosengo Omba instructed that the NFA members hold off on the extra-ordinary congress in mid-November when the motion to dismiss the entire executive committee was the primary focus.
But the NFA members moved the motion on the ‘mandatory’ annual congress on 4 December and unanimously resolved to fire NFA president Ranga Haikali and his executive. NFA secretary general Franco Cosmos, whose feud with Haikali is the epicentre of the discord, currently administers the organisation.
It remains to be seen whether Fifa reverses or endorses the unprecedented move, which was heavily condemned by the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa).
“A list of individuals and stakeholders will be communicated to the NFA before the said mission so that the Fifa and CAF representatives can meet and hear as many stakeholders as possible,” said Jen-Marie. There is no mention of Haikali’s ongoing case over alleged corruption that is before the NFA Ethics Committee in the Fifa letter.
The axing of the executive also appears to have derailed CAF and Fifa’s remedial intervention in Namibia, given that a second assessment is on the cards and not the recommendations promised by Mosengo Omba in November.
Given how long it took Fifa to organise a follow-up mission, it is likely too that the resumption of the domicile football leagues will be delayed further.
“A CAF and Fifa roadmap with a financial plan to put football in the country back on track” was due last month.
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