SHAYANDIMA – The management of the Ndaa U/14 Football Club is convinced that their mother body, Northern Province East Regional Association, has taken them for a ride.

Ndaa FC obtained the first position in their district, Thohoyandou 1 District, last season. According to the coach of the team, Mr Samuel Ndou, they were promised that the winners from the sixteen districts would be engaged in play-off matches to determine the team that will represent the region in the Transnet Club Championship that will be staged in next month.

That, however, did not happen as promised. According to Mr Mudau, they were shocked to learn that they would not take part in the play-off matches. In response to that, the NPER administrator, Mr Elvis Booi, stated that they had issued a circular early last month in which they appealed to all their districts to submit the names of their league champions not later than Friday, August 15. Booi further stated that they were embarrassed to see that only one district, Giyani District Football Association, had managed to meet the deadline.

According to Booi their reason for using August 15 as the deadline, was that they wanted the winners to play in the play-off matches during the course of last week, as the overall winner was needed last Friday to play against their Northern Province West Regional Association counterpart last Sunday, August 24. "Realizing that only one district had managed to meet the deadline, we decided to select a squad that would represent the region last Sunday. The selected squad managed to beat the team from the Northern Province West Region 4-1 last Sunday, thus booking a place in the finals of the club championships that will be held next month."

Booi further stated that they had nothing against Ndaa Football Club and appealed to the club to stop blaming them for the evil that they did not do, saying they should instead blame the district to which they are affiliated, Thohoyandou 1 District Football Association, for their failure to submit their winners in time as stipulated in the circular.