WINDHOEK, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's mobile telecom company and sponsor of the Namibia Premier League (NPL), MTC, announced Tuesday that it has now officially severed its relationship with the NPL following its expulsion as a member of Namibia Football Association (NFA).
In March 2020, MTC announced that it will not renew its relationship with the NPL once its 3-year agreement comes to an end, but that it will continue to hold the NPL budget until the end of the MTC financial year, and should the league not resume before then, the NPL will forfeit its budget.
"The current season was supposed to have ended in May 2020, however, we were more than generous to give the NPL four extra months till the end of September 2020 to either get the league started or forfeit their entire budget," MTC's Chief Human Capital and Corporate Affairs Officer, Tim Ekandjo said.
According to Ekandjo, MTC kept their promise, however now that the NPL is officially expelled by the NFA and therefore now a non-existent body, this automatically makes any agreement with the NPL null and void.
"We will no longer be holding this budget till the end of September and this will bring our 16-year old relationship in which we invested over 168 million Namibia dollars (10 million U.S. dollars) to a very sad end," he said, adding that it is indeed a sad development for football in the country.
Ekandjo meanwhile said MTC will however continue to invest in the development of Namibian football with sponsorship towards the MTC NFA Cup, the Hage Geingob Cup, and the MTC Hopsol Youth Soccer League. Enditem
