NISCGA appointed Vice President Tony Edwards as NISA focal point last year
The Niue Island Sports and Commonwealth Games Association (NISCGA) is apparently the interim executive for the Niue Island Soccer Association (NISA).
BCN News obtained copies of correspondence between NISCGA and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) dated 29th July 2020, a letter from NISCGA signed by President Maru Talagi to advise the OFC that NISCGA as the main sports body on the island will with immediate effect take over as the interim executive of NISA until they “complete the establishment of the new federation.”
The letter further identified Tony Edwards (pictured right) who is the NISCGA Vice President as the person to contact with all matters concerning soccer in Niue and asked OFC to disseminate this information across all members of the Oceania Football Confederation.
BCN News also obtained a copy of communications from the Oceania Football Confederation dated Friday last week 5th of March 2021 informing Tony Edwards that the associate member status of the former Niue Island Soccer Association has been revoked, following a decision taken by the OFC Executive Committee during its meeting on 3rd March. Tony Edwards is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
The email stated that the former NISA has been inoperative for the past ten year, putting it in breach of article 10 of the OFC statutes.
Meanwhile, in response to the story of the revocation of the membership the original NISA president Fisa Pihigia who is now based in Wellington as Niue’s High Commissioner to New Zealand has weighed in on the debacle, commenting on BCN Facebook page that “The Confederation failed Niue big time, as much effort of trying to talk to those responsible at the time, we were just rubbished”.
Mr Pihigia was responding to the story that Jamal Veidreyaki (pictured left)as a member of this original NISA executive committee disputed the allegations that NISA had been inactive in the last ten years. Veidreyaki had also called an urgent meeting to discuss the OFC membership issue and a way forward for soccer in Niue.
However, one of the officials from NISCGA told BCN news that Mr Pihigia was aware of NISCGA’s decision to take over as the executive of the Niue island soccer association.
The urgent soccer meeting is called for tomorrow and inviting all former soccer players and keen supporters to attend the meeting. BCN news will continue to follow this story between the national sports body NISCGA and a group trying to re-establish the Niue Island Soccer association.
The news of NISA’s OFC revocation of associate membership was first reported by Radio NZ on March 6th.
