Kahiriri blast NFA leadership
Football
Outspoken activist Olsen Kahiriri has taken aim at the governing body, accusing them of using 'bullying' tactics and a lack of transparency.
Outspoken football players representative Olsen Kahiriri has lashed out at the current Namibia Football Association leadership for running the NFA in the same manner as the previous leaders that dragged the governing body into trouble with FIFA. Kahiriri says he is disturbed by the fact that the association leaders continue to “lie” to the public about various aspects and are showing resemblances of their predecessors.
He alleges the leadership are abusing their powers to silence those that feel aggrieved by the way they are handling operations.
“I think the negative aspect about the current NFA leadership is that they are still the same kind of leadership that lie to the public and lack transparency.
“They are having the same arrogant attitude as those that were previously in office and that is not what is good for football,” Kahiriri fumed.
The fact that the NFA is yet to established a dispute resolution chamber is one of the reasons why Kahiriri feels that the leadership has yet to prove their worth to the football public.
Kahiriri, who handles different dispute cases of footballers including the payment case of money that was due to national team team member at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations, accuses the NFA of using bullying tactics to silence the players from demanding what they deserve.
He confirmed that he has legal papers of the players that feel that they were treated unfairly after being axed from the national team.
“The players simply demanded what was on their contracts, but ended up losing their place in the national team.
“This is the kind of system that is always used by associations and that is not right at all, because at the end of the day it is unfair,” he said.
NCS controversy
The Namibia Correctional Service team that won the Southern Stream First Division was recently denied an opportunity of being promoted into the top-flight league due to the fact that Khomas Nampol also plays in the Debmarine Namibia Premier Football League.
The restriction preventing more than one club under the ownership of the same ministry to compete in the NPFL prompted the association’s decision to award promotion to Swakopmund-based side Blue Boys, after they ended second in that division.
Kahiriri however feels that the NFA should have at least allowed the NCS the opportunity to sell their status before automatically promoting Blue Boys.
“In the past, when a team is not able to get promoted due to similar rules, the club was bought, or at least given an opportunity to be sold, so that the players can get the opportunity to play top-flight football.
“I did not see this happening this time around, because we know that there are people from the coast in the leadership trying to please their buddies,” Kahiriri said.