The Secretary of the Yambio Local Football Association (Y-LFA), Elisa Kumbo Mukasi, has blamed external interference for the resignations of two of their top association leaders.

Last week, the Yambio Local Football Association (Y-LFA) President, Felix Francis Katie, and Vice President, Kondo Samuel Ningso, resigned from their duties as leaders of the association.

In a letter addressed to the board of directors through the secretary of YLFA, the two resigned officially on January 31, 2022, despite having been in office for almost four years after their election in 2019.

In the letter, they both expressed their dissatisfaction with the nature of their jobs, stating that they would not be able to serve at the same time.

“I would like to inform you of my resignation from the position of president of the Yambio Local Football Association, effective from the date of this letter.

”I appreciate the opportunities the General Assembly and the football fraternity bestowed upon me during my tenure in the office. The nature of my work now does not allow me to hold the position and be effective, “the Y-LFA ex-president Katie stated in the letter.

Meanwhile, the resignation letter from the deputy president also mentioned similar reasons.

“I was working in Yambio and had the opportunity to support sports, but I got another job in Wau [which] does not allow me to be in Yambio now. For this reason, I am giving a chance to the on the ground, ” he said.

‘‘My apology for disappointing you with all the trust and support you put in me for the development of sports in Yambio. I am sorry if I might have hurt anyone during my time in the office. If my support is needed, my door will remain wide open,” said Ningso, the outgoing Vice president.

Despite stating reasons for their resignation, most people do believe there could be other triggers, especially after it emerged that the working relationship within the Y-LFA had lots of hitches.

In an interview with The City Review last week, Elisa Kumbo Mukasi, the Y-LFA Secretary, confirmed the resignations of the two men.

More than meets the eye

However, Elisa believed that there could be other reasons beyond the notice served to the members.

“It was true that the two had resigned, I received both the resignation letters four days back,” he said.

The reasons that were given by the deputy president were that he has some work keeping him far from Yambio plus other responsibilities.

However, Elisa claimed that there could be more reasons than just working with other organisations, stating that the two were elected while they were serving in the NGOs.

According to the secretary, the executive members of the Y-LFA have been affected. He said it was no longer a matter of the president and the deputy alone, but the entire Yambio LFA cabinet was not happy with the working environment.

There have been external interference in the Y-LFA, which Elias said has made the working environment insecure for the members.

“You know some of us who left politics normally go to work for organisations while choosing sports like football. That is why we are there, but if it is mixed up with politics, then one will have the right to step aside because we believe sports with politics cannot achieve much,” he stressed.

“What we are doing is actually free, just something like social responsibility work, but when it is taken to [be] something different, it can easily interfere with someone’s performance somewhere,” Elisa explained.

However, he said they were in communication with SSFA in Juba to address the problems, urging football clubs and fans to be patient as they try to settle the matter.