Longer wait for start of club season

Football
Jesse Kauraisa
There will be a further delay towards the start of the Namibia Premier Football League’s 2024-2025 season, Sport Wrap has established.

All football leagues – including the Women’s Super League, three First Division streams, all second divisions and all third divisions – were due to start this coming Saturday following the NFA’s confirmed announcement earlier in October.

After fixtures had been sent out to the media, the association has however backtracked, citing technicalities which have not yet been ironed out.

This is a second delay after the association announced before that the league would start in September.

Sport Wrap understands that various unresolved issues have been the thorn in the flesh of the administration which was due to start the league.

The actual delay to start the league in September was due to the fact that the NFA and the potential sponsor had not reached an agreement of the sponsorship terms and conditions.

As things stand, various football leagues in the world are already approaching the mid-half of their season, while it remains to be seen when the league will commence.

Sources in the NFA claim that there are many issues to be resolved, including the teams’ required registration on the FIFA e-connect system, which many teams have been struggling with.

The situation is said to have caused frustrations among many clubs that were hopeful to start playing football this coming weekend.

The national men’s team’s scheduled rematch in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) against Lesotho on Friday in Bloemfontein will further impact on player absences, with Eeshoke Chula Chula and reigning premiership title holders African Stars most affected.

Attempts to get comment from the NFA and league officials proved fruitless before this newspaper went for print.