WINDHOEK – At its Ordinary Annual General Meeting (OAGM) held in Windhoek on Saturday, member clubs of the Namibia Premier League (NPL) collectively chose November 1 as the official kick-off date for the 2019/20 football season.
The OAGM, which was held at the offices of the Namibia Sports Commission in Windhoek and attended by 26 representatives of the current 13 NPL clubs, saw the congress unanimously agree on November 1, 2019 as the commencement date for the new season.
As part of the efforts to have the ball rolling by November 1 as agreed, congress also tasked the league’s executive to submit a request to the Namibia Football Association (NFA) to extend the players’ registration period until October 31.
Another major point that featured on the agenda of Saturday’s meeting was the heated topic of promotion and relegation of clubs to and from the NPL ahead of the new season.
According to a statement issued by the NPL late Sunday, the delegates intensely deliberated on the issue as per the earlier request of the Fifa-appointed Normalisation Committee (NC) to the NPL that, based on the principle of ‘sporting merit’, the teams to be promoted to the NPL for the 2019/20 season should be Civics FC and Orlando Pirates FC, while demoted Young African FC should wait to hear its fate from an independent Appeals Committee, to be set up by the NFA and endorsed at the NFA congress.
Following rigorous discussions, the members pointed to the fact that the NPL constitution does not permit congress to admit any member not promoted from the First Division.
To enable congress to consider the proposed promotion as requested by the NC, congress resolved that any member who wishes to deliberate on the admission must comply with article 63 and submit proposed amendments to articles 10.2 and 64.1 of the NPL constitution by tomorrow, September 25.
It was also agreed that the NPL must write to the NC to be provided with the rules and method to be used to promote and relegate clubs to and from different lower leagues for the upcoming 2019/20 season, while the motion was adjourned for further deliberation by congress to Thursday, September 26.