The International Federation for Football Associations (FIFA) has announced a second Normalisation Committee (NC) for the Namibia Football Association (NFA), which will take charge of the affairs of the organisation until 31 April 2023.
In a letter seen by Nampa, the committee comprises Gerson Bisey Uirab (chairman), Afra Schimming-Chase (deputy chairwoman), Willy Mertens (member), Esmeralda Muhinatjo Katjaerua (member) and Dinaa Shituula (member).
It is mandated to run the daily affairs of the NFA; restructure the NFA administration; review the NFA statutes and electoral code to ensure their compliance with the FIFA statutes and requirements, and to ensure their adoption by the NFA congress; act as an electoral committee in order to organise and conduct elections of a new NFA exco based on the newly aligned NFA statutes and electoral code; and ensure a proper financial handover to the new NFA executive committee.
“In view of this, the FIFA council noted that the NFA was currently without an executive committee, the positions of which are vacant. The secretary general is presently in charge of matters that would, in principle, fall within the sphere of responsibility and powers of the executive committee, as per the NFA statutes. This concentration of both administrative and executive powers in the hands of a single official was considered by the FIFA-CAF delegation as inappropriate,” the letter stated.
FIFA further explained that it had observed that the attitude and role played by the SG had largely contributed to the strong divisions amongst the members of the executive committee, which eventually led to the split of the committee into two groups, whose positions had become irreconcilable.
It also noted that SG Franco Cosmos was subject to disciplinary proceedings before the national court, which found him guilty of not having acted in line with his employment contract.
His dismissal from the NFA was thus recommended by the court on 21 December 2021 but had not been able to be enforced by the exco in view of the circumstances.
FIFA also castigated the role of the so-called ‘Progressive Forces Group’ in influencing decisions at the association, looking at the upcoming elections which could be compromised by such impact.
The NC appointments follow the dissolution of the Ranga Haikali-led executive committee via an Ordinary NFA Congress on 04 December 2021.
The dismissal of the exco was necessitated by the differences between the NFA president Haikali, Cosmos and members of the association which FIFA felt could not be resolved amicably as the positions of the committee members “were too far apart”.
The first NC was appointed in February 2019 and was led by Hilda Basson-Namundjebo (chairperson), Cosmos (vice-chairperson) while other committee members were Gaby Ahrens, Matti Mwandingi and Vivienne Katjiuongua.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
