JLFA Steering Committee Secretary General, Mr. Darios Laku Daniel. (Awan Moses/Eye Radio).

Juba Local Football Association announced the resumption of football activities in the capital after a steering committee was appointed to act on behalf of its suspended Board of Directors.

JLFA Steering Committee Secretary General, Mr. Darios Laku Daniel revealed the new date of the resumption of football activities in an interview with Eye Radio on Monday.

Laku urged football clubs’ administrators to participate in the ongoing transfer window to legalize their player’s status before the 2023-2024 season begins in early October.

He assured the sports fans in Juba that there would be no further suspension of sports activities.

Laku said the administrative issue that may arise between the state and national football bodies will be addressed at the administrative level and will have nothing to do with football activities.

“We are working on the administrative part to make sure that the football activities are resumed as part of the directives of the recent general assembly,” he said.

“We as the steering committee, are implementing the directives of the General Assembly, there I want to assure everyone as the sports community that there is nothing that will stop football activities again in Juba.”

The Board of Directors of Juba Local Football Association was suspended for a year, by the national football governing body over a row involving Juba Stadium, and the suspension has been extended by SSFA General Assembly for one more year.

– Juba Stadium row –

In October 2022, a dispute emerged between the Juba Local Football and the South Sudan Football Association over the ownership of Juba National Stadium.

Later, the two football bodies signed a communique, also referred to as a roadmap to allow SSFA to continue with construction until the final solution is found.

Juba National Stadium was previously owned by the Central Equatoria Ministry of Youth and Sport.

But in 2018, the ministry transferred it to the Juba Local Football Association with the aim of transitioning its ownership to the South Sudan Football Association.

In the same year, the Juba Local Football Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding transferring the stadium ownership to the South Sudan Football Association for 20 years.

However, in November 2022, a fresh dispute emerged between SSFA and JLFA over land in Southeast of Juba Stadium and Juba Stadium itself.

The Board of Directors of the Juba Local Football Association had written a letter of complaint to the Central Equatoria Sports Minister and submitted a petition to FIFA regarding the Juba Stadium dispute.

In response, SSFA handed the body a one-year suspension on January 30, 2023, for having allegedly described the SSFA as irresponsible in a letter communicated to the state sports minister.

The president of the Juba Local Football Association John Ladu eventually announced his resignation from the SSFA Board of Directors membership.