Anti-Mbella Moki front emerges in SW FECAFOOT

A front that is likely to topple a clique of FECAFOOT officials led by Senator Mbella Moki Charles in the South West region has surfaced.

Though operating under the banner of the South West Regional Associations of Club Presidents, the forum called on its members headed by CRTV journalist and president of Little Foot Sports Academy of Tiko, Nouck Protus with MP. Osih Joshua of Kumba Lakers as adviser.

Following the cancellation of elections into the various leagues of FECAFOOT nationwide by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS, last week, the future of the Mbella Moki cabal now hangs on the balance.

The job done by the Joseph Owona-led Normalisation Committee is now good for the trash can, as the decision of CAS implies that the 2009 general assembly of FECAFOOT would oversee the elections leading to the polls for the Federation’s presidency.

Majority of the members of the anti-Mbella Moki front which emerged after the failure of the Normalisation Committee, are those who overtly stood against Mbella Moki in the November 2014 election that saw him elected president of the South West FECAFOOT.

Contacted to react to claims that the associations of club presidents in the region was essentially created last February 17 to dismantle a clique of FECAFOOT officials in the South West region led by Mbella Moki who has managed football for more than a decade now, the pioneer and newly elected president, Nouck Protus said the association is out to share ideas and not to fight individuals.

“I want to remind you first of all that the South West club presidents have been meeting for a long time. But we have not been organized to the standard we thought it should be.

So the forum that was created on the 17th of February was because of the desire to get ourselves more organized. I wanted a structure that is more responsible so that clubs can be better represented so as to give a voice to our own aspirations and ideas on how football should be managed in this region, especially on how we could make our individual clubs better.”

Asked to elaborate on such aspirations, Nouck stated; “Aspirations to see our individual clubs well organized, well structured, solid and more durable. Aspirations to see our championship played in the best of conditions.

Aspirations to see those who love the game come back to the forefront and continue actively to promote the football in our region. If you create an association only to fight somebody then you are joking. You cannot create an association only to look at the wrongs of other people. We created it to share experiences and ideas amongst ourselves.

An association is all about people who share common aspirations and common objectives.”

It should be noted that Mbella Moki won last November’s regional elections by 7 votes against 6 for his main challenger, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor.

Nouck had earlier shown interest to take the top job until his team was disqualified to take part in the elections. Talking about vying for the regional league president job again, Nouck was unequivocal; “I cannot say that I would not be interested anymore. I think we just need to wait and see where we are heading to.

We have talked about the annulment of the elections and even the text. So probably there will be a new text and an electoral code. Things might not change much but we just need to wait and see. We cannot start talking now about being a candidate. Through the malicious intention of some people at FECAFOOT, I was disqualified but I later won the appeal and by the time I won the appeal and finally voted, it was late for me to file my candidature.”

Last Thursday’s decision from CAS confirmed annulment of the statutes drawn up by the Normalisation Committee and adopted on August 23, 2014. In the meantime, the mandate of the Joseph Owona team ends on February 28, without achieving the goal assigned to it by FIFA.

However, as the university professor stated in a press conference last week, the Committee is on standby awaiting decision from FIFA. Owona said he was mandated by FIFA and would wait on the football governing body to inform him on the way forward. The possibility of a further extension of the Normalisation Committee’s mandate is not being ruled out.