Yours truly has taken note with disgust the extra-stubborn attitude of football club bosses in the MTC Premiership of late and feels obliged to call these over-zealous dudes with their fat cheques to order.
The dust has hardly settled in the aftermath of the sacking of former African Stars flamboyant and often controversial coach Ali “Mr Fix It” Akan, whose unceremonious departure from the Katutura glamour football club has sent tongues wagging – and another top club is at it again.
Black Africa’s likeable mentor Brian “Oubaas” Isaacs, who has steered the ambitious Gemengde-based outfit to back-to-back league titles in recent seasons, is the subject of all kinds of psychological torture by those who should be singing praises for his exploits and transforming the team into a formidable unit.
Isaacs is suspected to have leaked vital information about players’ movements to the media and has been given a tongue-lashing and cautioned that should the club find out that he is the source of the information that led to the article that appeared in an English daily last week – he would follow in the footsteps of former African Stars gaffer Ali Akan.
Akan left Stars under mysterious circumstances with accusations of insubordination and counter-accusations that the club was undermining his functions, flying in different directions.
The reason for this unwanted debacle, which led to the short-fused Kurdish national’s hasty exit is that he ostensibly broke the team’s code of conduct by speaking to the media without having obtained the necessary approval from his paymasters.
For Namibian champions Black Africa to threaten their most successful coach in the modern era and one of the most sought-after football coaches in the business with the boot is tantamount to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, childish, laughable and clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of the maneuverings in the game of football, to say the least.
One shudders to think as to where our football is heading with this sort of bossy attitude by those who control the purse strings if coaches are to be zipped from discussing purely technical football matters, which forms an integral part of their primary functions. Clubs should consider themselves very lucky to have such outspoken coaches in their midst as these blokes also market and promote their respective clubs in a much welcomed positive way.
Many local clubs are extremely stingy when it comes to providing their followers through the media with vital information that are of public interest. Can you imagine Chelsea telling Jose Morinho to keep his loud mouth shut – football will be a boring affair without the customary pre-match hype created by the likes of Akan, Woody Jacobs, Christy Guruseb, Gilbert Rwasoka, Cassius Moetie and Brian Isaacs to name but a few.
Did Shihepo do enough to silence his critics?
Well, call it sentiments or blind loyalty but many local boxing enthusiasts believe that Namibia’s world title hopeful Wilberforce “Black Mamba” Shihepo was certainly given a raw deal in his unanimous defeat against the out of sorts Arthur Abraham.
Internationally acclaimed boxing guru Eric Armit, from the United Kingdom, watched the action and this is how he analysed the bout.
Abraham will want to forget this one. He won but did not look sharp and had more trouble than he should have had against the Namibian who had never fought at this level.
Abraham took the first three rounds but Shihepo had better rounds in the fourth and fifth getting through with some good hooks. It was the sixth before Abraham was really able to get through with hard punches and opened a small cut above Shihepo’s left eye.
He was just not letting his punches go as he had in the past and the Namibian showed a good chin. Abraham edged the seventh but Shihepo came through to take the eighth.
The Namibian seemed to have trouble with his right leg, which might have been cramp and needed attention in the break. The ninth and tenth were close with Abraham getting through with the harder shots, but Shihepo also doing good work.
Despite his relative lack of experience at this level Shihepo produced the stronger finish over the last two rounds but it was not enough. Scores 117-111, 116-112 and 116-113. Not one of the best fights by “King Arthur” and at 33 there are starting to be questions over whether he is slipping.
“Black Mamba” Shihepo, 30, was WBO No 8 with only one loss in his previous eleven fights and that was a disqualification. He enhanced his prestige with this showing. I rest my case.