13/05/2025
Sports President in Unity State Gatjang Matiok impeached
The General Assembly of Bentiu Local Football Association impeached the Football President Mr. Gatjang Matiok and his deputy Chahan Chan on Tuesday 13th over the leadership failures. The impeachment was done during an extraordinary General Assembly meeting when a 2/3 majority enormously voted of no confidence against them in Bentiu Youth Center.
The Football President and his deputy were impeached together with Secretary General Gatkuoth Nyuel and Treasurer Puok Matai over a leadership vacuum. The Assembly nominated three interim leaders including Lat Tungwar Kuicguong as Acting president, Bol Majuan Gatduel, as Acting Secretary General and Pech Alpam Rialthin as Acting Treasurer.
Assembly blamed an absence of the key Football officials including the former president, Secretary General and the Treasurer for working remotely in Juba which they say has caused unprecedented operation challenges. It is not clear how long the chairperson and his secretary spend in Juba.
Article 6 of the local Unified status says the "General Assembly is authorized to call for an extraordinary General Assembly if more than half of its eligible voting members support the request". The Status non compliance requires that an extraordinary meeting be convened within 30 days of request.
Zechariah Kuol Majuet says “they requested the president and his board for the first and second meeting respectively on November 28th, 2024 and February 5th, 2025. But the leadership did not acknowledge their roles nor responded to our initial request” he explained.
Member of the Assembly Lam Puok explained that they are using Article 9 to impeach the leadership. The vote of no nconfidence was used when they were summoned and they failed to show up. The leadership was alleged of stopped the sports tournament since last year without genuine reason.
Unity State was supposed to organize a tournament on May 3025, but the tournament was postponed indefinitely forcing the assembly to remove leadership from power.
Chieng Wanmau, the deputy Secretary from Soon FC says absence of the sports activities in the State encourages crimes and causes psychological trauma to young people. But when the tournament is organised it will reduce trauma among the redundant youth who have no jobs.
The Acting Director of Culture Youth and Sports Peter Puot Jiech says the ministry has no jurisdiction powers over the general assembly. He says the ministry's role is to witness the sports committee meetings or resolutions. If you want to remove your chairperson, it is the assembly's constitutional choice.
The Secretary General for Upper Nile FC, Lat Tungwar says the chairperson and his board have violated the constitution. And they acted unconstitutionally by undermining the Assembly mandate. He warned that if the leadership failed they deserved to be removed according to article 19 and elected in new leadership without keeping sport hostage.
It was not the first time for the sports officials to be impeached in Unity State. The former president Philip Nguon Top was also impeached in 2022 over an alleged mismanagement of $20,000 in COV-19 funds.
State Football associations has been facing leadership controversies over the involvement of undisclosed political players which they believed was killing the sport management. Some senior sports experts who withdrew their participation due to frustration expressed concerns about the football mismanagement.
Mr. Gatjang came into leadership as Acting president in May 2022 after Philip's impeachments. He was officially confirmed as the president on April 2023. Members say the national sports leadership unconstitutionally extended its term lifespan up to 2027 without approval from the Unity State General Assembly.
Unity State is comprised of more than 10 football clubs that play tournaments within Bentiu town apart from counties's tournaments.
