PORT MORESBY, (THE NATIONAL) – The Papua New Guinea Football Association has been urged to follow proper process and procedure after its suspension of Lae Football Association executives Roy Kamen and Stanley Khanna.
John Kapi Natto, a nominee for the PNGFA’s president’s post, says there are processes to deal with such internal matters instead of going to the OFC Ethics Committee.
He said the suspension of LFA president Kamen and junior vice-president Khanna was a slap in a face of football in the country.
The Hekari Association president said PNGFA clearly states in Article 38 that “any dismissal of a person or an association is a matter for the PNGFA congress to decide”.
“Any issue on football matters must be referred to the congress as stated in Article 46 – Judicial Body, where it states that PNGFA must have its disciplinary committee look into such matters,” he said.
According to Kapi Natto, Article 47: (Judiciary Committee) and Article 49 (Disciplinary Matters) could be used to resolve such internal issues without involving the regional body.
“We could have easily resolved this in house but it’s become an OFC matter. The PNGFA should have created or appointed a disciplinary committee to look into it or if not it could have been referred to the PNG Olympic Committee Sports Arbitration Committee,” Kapi Natto said.
“The common understanding is that if PNGFA disciplinary committee cannot deal with the matter then, it should be referred to the sports arbitration committee to deal with it and if that failed to solve the problem then the OFC and Fifa are the next steps.”
The LFA is the biggest association in the country apart along with Port Moresby, who have not been able to run a competition over the last three seasons.
Kapi Natto regretted that this had happened a month away from the PNGFA elective congress as LFA were at the forefront of a challenge to the PNGFA administration.
Kapi Natto said he respected the office of PNGFA president David Chung and secretary-general Dimirit Mileng, he called for the PNGFA not to target non-supportive associations to suspend them arbitrarily.
He said PNGFA needed to respect the democratic right of each affiliated association to have their say at the congress on August 7 in Kimbe, West New Britain.
As both Kamen and Khanna were given 10 days to appeal, Kapi Natto called on the PNGFA to rescind its decision.
Attempts to contact Chung were unsuccessful.
