Des­per­a­tion has stepped in among the mem­ber­ship of the North­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (NFA).

Some 14 out of the 19 clubs have vowed to take any ac­tion nec­es­sary to run their own af­fairs in the league, as the ex­ec­u­tive has not ac­ced­ed to their re­quest for this year's an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing (AGM) and elec­tion of a new ex­ec­u­tive, which they feel can take place at a venue that is big enough and suit­able for the coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) re­stric­tions.

An­tho­ny Wick­ham, the Trend­set­ter Hawks coach who is the dri­ving force be­hind this new de­vel­op­ment in the zone, said they have stepped up their de­mand for the AGM and elec­tion since things have been open­ing out with re­gards to the COVID-19 re­stric­tions in sports, say­ing: "When it is ful­ly opened up, they do not want to be caught be­hind in the zone."

The clubs are plan­ning to ex­er­cise their rights to call an Ex­tra­or­di­nary Gen­er­al Meet­ing (EGM) where the elec­tion of of­fi­cers can take place at a venue to be de­ter­mined.

On Mon­day, the clubs wrote to Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Gary Grif­fith seek­ing per­mis­sion to hold a meet­ing of the gen­er­al mem­ber­ship, at which time a de­ci­sion will be tak­en to hold an EGM to de­cide on a new ex­ec­u­tive, Wick­ham said adding that for the EGM to be held the mem­bers will need to get 75 per cent sup­port of the mem­ber­ship, as stat­ed in the con­sti­tu­tion.

The Trend­set­ter Hawks coach has ruled out hold­ing the elec­tion via a vir­tu­al meet­ing, say­ing for the elec­tion of of­fi­cers, there is need for a se­cret-bal­lot process.

"We have more than 75 per cent sup­port at this time, so we are now wait­ing on a re­sponse from the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice to know if the meet­ing can take place at a fa­cil­i­ty where all the COVID-19 re­stric­tion can be ad­hered to," said Wick­ham, who is al­so pas­sion­ate­ly known as Da­da.

He told Guardian Me­dia Sports they will al­so write to Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer (CMO) of the Min­istry of Health Dr Roshan Paras­ram.

The clubs have re­peat­ed­ly called on the gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the NFA, Rashawn Mars, to call the AGM and elec­tion which was ini­tial­ly card­ed to be held in Sep­tem­ber but had to be post­poned be­cause of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic.

Mars too has re­peat­ed­ly said that no gath­er­ing can take place with­out the per­mis­sion of the CMO and the gov­ern­ment.

Wick­ham said they will even con­sid­er hold­ing the meet­ing among the mem­ber­ship vir­tu­al­ly, but not the elec­tions.