Wawens owe NSL fees

By ROBINSON LEKA
MOROBE Wawens’ failure to show up in Port Moresby over the weekend was a result of non-compliance with competition requirements, says the National Soccer League (NSL) board.
The NSL’s assistant competition manager Micah Kaneng told The National that a grace period was extended to franchises with outstanding fees from the previous season (2018-2019) and board declined cover the cost of travel due to non-compliance by the franchise.
“Wawens still owe NSL but the board had given them a grace period that was to end in round six,” he said.
“It was notified clearly from the beginning when the competition started that they could participate but they must pay before the end of round six.
“The second notice was given to them in December but it seems that they are not communicating and responding to the correspondence that the NSL secretariat sent,” Kaneng said.
Meanwhile, Wawens franchise manager Andrew Namus confirmed that they were yet to pay the outstanding fees from last season (2018-2019), however, he explained that they had fully met the requirements for the current season (2019-2020).
“They (NSL) should have met the airfares for all our players because the budget for this year is K90,000 but we paid K109,000 (to the NSL)”, he said.
“Regardless of the outstanding, we’ve paid in full to the NSL for this season and we haven’t used our money for travel since we registered.
“Our first away game in Goroka (round 1), they (NSL) only gave us K3,000 and that money came in two weeks after the match,” Numus said.
Wawens’ failure to attend their round six match on Saturday saw their opponents Star Mountain forfeit them and earn three competition points.