Life Fighters still fighting case

LIFE Fighters will push ahead with their arbitration case against the Namibia Premier League (NPL), despite the reluctance of Tigers and the Namibia National Referees’ Committee to serve as respondents.

A pre-arbitration meeting, which was scheduled for Monday, did not produce any results as the representatives from the referees’ committee and Tigers failed to turn up to state their side of the story. Life Fighters are in a wrangle with the NPL about points which they claim were taken away from them unfairly after they failed to arrange for enough security personnel at the Mokati Stadium last season.After studying the reports of the match officials who were supposed to handle the match, the NPL concluded that Life Fighters were at fault and gave the match points to Tigers.It is the second time that representatives from both parties have failed to attend the pre-arbitration meeting, which is supposed to shed light on what happened in Otjiwarongo.The match officials called off the match, claiming that they feared for their lives because there were not enough security guards to guarantee their safety.Life Fighters lawyer Clive Kavendjii told The Namibian Sport yesterday that neither Tigers nor the referees committee attended the pre-arbitration hearing.He said Tigers stated in a letter addressed to the Namibia Football Association secretary-general, Alpheus Gaweseb, that they were not interested in having anything further to do with the case.Kavendjii could not disclose the reasons why Tigers did not want to participate.The referees’ committee did not indicate whether they would have a further stake in the prolonged case.He said Life Fighters would push ahead and would now go to the actual Arbitration Board to have their case heard, irrespective of the involvement of Tigers and the referees’ committee.”As things are now, both Tigers and the referees’ committee need to pronounce themselves in writing that the decision by the Arbitration Board is final and binding.”We are preparing the relevant documentation and we are also going to present some witnesses that we think are relevant to the case at the actual arbitration,” he said.Kavendjii said there was no specific timeframe for the case to be finalised, but he hoped a solution could be found by late next week.”We don’t want to commit ourselves to a specific date, as we generally would not like to keep people waiting.We will deal with the issue accordingly and I am sure we will find a solution at the right time,” he said.If Life Fighters win the case, they might have to replay the match against Tigers, or the Arbitration Board might decide to share the points between the two teams.If there is a replay and Life Fighters win the game, they will have 29 points instead of their current 26, putting Benfica in danger of relegation.Benfica, who currently have 28 points, could lose their place in the promotion playoffs to Life Fighters in this case.Meanwhile, rumour has it that Benfica have been given the assurance by the NFA that they would not be relegated, irrespective of the outcome of the arbitration case.No one from the NFA would confirm or deny the report.If it is true, it could be the NFA’s biggest blunder yet, as it has not finalised the Life Fighters case, which it had granted arbitration.The promotion playoffs have been postponed twice because of the arbitration case, and were eventually called off “until further notice”.Namibia is possibly the only country that has not yet concluded its league as prescribed by Fifa.The resumption of the domestic league has been haunted over the years by outstanding disciplinary cases, appeals and arbitration cases that were not concluded in time.This year, the NPL has set September 3 as the new date for the league to start, but the arbitration case and the promotion playoffs still need to be concluded and no dates have been set for these yet.Life Fighters are in a wrangle with the NPL about points which they claim were taken away from them unfairly after they failed to arrange for enough security personnel at the Mokati Stadium last season.After studying the reports of the match officials who were supposed to handle the match, the NPL concluded that Life Fighters were at fault and gave the match points to Tigers.It is the second time that representatives from both parties have failed to attend the pre-arbitration meeting, which is supposed to shed light on what happened in Otjiwarongo.The match officials called off the match, claiming that they feared for their lives because there were not enough security guards to guarantee their safety.Life Fighters lawyer Clive Kavendjii told The Namibian Sport yesterday that neither Tigers nor the referees committee attended the pre-arbitration hearing.He said Tigers stated in a letter addressed to the Namibia Football Association secretary-general, Alpheus Gaweseb, that they were not interested in having anything further to do with the case.Kavendjii could not disclose the reasons why Tigers did not want to participate.The referees’ committee did not indicate whether they would have a further stake in the prolonged case.He said Life Fighters would push ahead and would now go to the actual Arbitration Board to have their case heard, irrespective of the involvement of Tigers and the referees’ committee.”As things are now, both Tigers and the referees’ committee need to pronounce themselves in writing that the decision by the Arbitration Board is final and binding.”We are preparing the relevant documentation and we are also going to present some witnesses that we think are relevant to the case at the actual arbitration,” he said.Kavendjii said there was no specific timeframe for the case to be finalised, but he hoped a solution could be found by late next week.”We don’t want to commit ourselves to a specific date, as we generally would not like to keep people waiting.We will deal with the issue accordingly and I am sure we will find a solution at the right time,” he said.If Life Fighters win the case, they might have to replay the match against Tigers, or the Arbitration Board might decide to share the points between the two teams.If there is a replay and Life Fighters win the game, they will have 29 points instead of their current 26, putting Benfica in danger of relegation.Benfica, who currently have 28 points, could lose their place in the promotion playoffs to Life Fighters in this case.Meanwhile, rumour has it that Benfica have been given the assurance by the NFA that they would not be relegated, irrespective of the outcome of the arbitration case.No one from the NFA would confirm or deny the report.If it is true, it could be the NFA’s biggest blunder yet, as it has not finalised the Life Fighters case, which it had granted arbitration.The promotion playoffs have been postponed twice because of the arbitration case, and were eventually called off “until further notice”.Namibia is possibly the only country that has not yet concluded its league as prescribed by Fifa.The resumption of the domestic league has been haunted over the years by outstanding disciplinary cases, appeals and arbitration cases that were not concluded in time.This year, the NPL has set September 3 as the new date for the league to start, but the arbitration case and the promotion playoffs still need to be concluded and no dates have been set for these yet.