…with visit of FIFPro’s Burchkalter
WINDHOEK – The International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPro) Africa Division Secretary-General, Stephane Burchkalter. FIFPro yesterday heaped praise on the Namibia Football Players Union (NAFPU) for its hard work, tremendous progress and for taking a stand in the fight for footballers rights.
Speaking at a short press conference at Hilton Hotel in the capital yesterday, Burchkalter said FIFPro is a worldwide representative organization with 65 000 professional football players under its wing. FIFPro, with its global headquarters in Hoofddorp in the Netherlands, is presently made up of 55 national players’ associations, three candidate members and seven observers. Burchkalter encouraged NAFPU President Lolo Goraseb to keep doing the good job of fighting for footballers contractual rights and wellbeing, saying many players’ rights are mostly overlooked and just as many end up being offered raw deals. In his short speech, Goraseb said despite the union’s struggle to stabilize its relationship with the Namibia Premier League (NPL), he is hopeful the two parties would reach an amicable solution for the full representation of all Namibia Premier League footballers.
Goraseb also used the platform to announce that NAFPU would next year be hosting workshops for its members in various regions countrywide, where they aim to educate and inform them about their rights and various other aspects that go hand in hand with signing a professional contract as a footballer. The former Brave Warriors midfield maestro also revealed that NAFPU has been granted the right to the 2015 FIFPro Division Africa Congress, where various African and international footballers unions’ will meet to discuss issues affecting footballers continentally and globally. Meanwhile, the NFA women’s football chief Jacky Shipanga was also named the first African women to serve on the FIFPro Women’s Football Committee, which is another milestone for women’s football in Namibia.
By Otniel Hembapu