Times Of Swaziland: Stalemate in  16-team saga

Stalemate in  16-team saga
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 BY DUMISANI NTIWANE on 29/08/2013 05:24:00


EZULWINI – Mbabane Highlanders’ hopes of avoiding the dreaded relegation axe
were blown sky high last night.
This was during the National Football Association of Swaziland (NFAS)
Extraordinary Assembly, which was held at the Libandla Room at the Royal Swazi
Sun last night.
The contentious 16-team league issue was again put to the vote as there were
different views with some of the delegates calling for the initial resolution
taken during the association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on June 30,
which called for the increase of teams to 16 in both the National First Division
League and the MTN Premier League, a resolution that was openly rejected by the
Premier League of Swaziland (PLS).
The matter was again put to the vote by the NFAS president Adam ‘Bomber’
Mthethwa after the delegates differed in views on the call to increase teams to
16.
Prior to the voting, the NFAS executive had tried but in vain to convince all
the delegates present, 42 of them, that they were facing challenges in
implementing the resolution of the association’s General Assembly.
This did not go down well with a section of the delegates, especially the movers
of the proposal, the Manzini Regional Football Association (MRFA) and the
referees’ body.
During the voting, the delegates were tied at 21 votes each per warring faction.
NFAS Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Frederick Mngomezulu, who stood in as the
electoral officer told the delegates that the constitution was silent on a tie
in cases of voting during an Extraordinary Meeting like last night’s.
Instead, the executive committee, according to the CEO, will now decide on the
matter, which spells doom for Highlanders, as the proposal was made by the NFAS
executive. It is a foregone conclusion that the FA executive committee will
vouch for the implementation of their own proposal, which part of it reads;
“It is proposed that the General Assembly looks at this as a process which
needs to be taken from a point of proposal, to feasibility, practicality, to the
sustainability of the project, sourcing of financial, human, technical and
infrastructure resources then implementation.
“This is a lengthy process, with one goal for success cannot be implemented
immediately but must be given the due consideration for the above factors to
take place then executed accordingly. It is kindly requested that the PLS be
given at least one season to do this exercise, a process format and steps of
which can be formulated and reported upon as outlined by the NFAS and subsequent
reporting to the next NFAS General Assembly”.