Carlos Kambaekwa
Why ‘No pain’, ‘No gain’ should set alarm bells ringing – the ‘It will get worse before it gets better’ fallacy:
When it comes to pattern to recognition, people tend to become oversensitive, so to speak. Well, it seems too good to be true but the naked fact is that Namibian football without certain football clubs is like a blind man in a darkroom.
Yours truly has never been one to shy away from controversy, and without beating about the bush the seemingly unending ongoing frosty relationship between the country’s football governing body the Namibia Football Association (NFA) and its platinum affiliate, the Namibia Premier League (NPL), is increasingly becoming a serious cause for concern.
Dear readers, do I need to remind you that the game of football in the land of the brave without the presence of the Katutura big four would be effectively rendered irrelevant?
Those pulling the strings at Football House need a quick reminder to start smelling the java and take note that the outdated biblical philosophy of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth leaves everybody blind – thus a blind leading another blind.
From what yours truly could gather is that the bone of contention is the hard-core stance undertaken by the unprocedurally constituted NPL Interim Committee’s eleventh hour pull-out of the maiden edition of the newly introduced Debmarine Cup under the auspices of the mother body (NFA).
Now the fundamental question that comes to mind is: if the majority of teams, ten to be precise, are eager to feature in the competition, how the bloody hell is it possible that the league allows itself to be held hostage by six clubs?
What criteria was used to pull out of the competition and why did the very same NPL allow its affiliates, the three division one streams, to participate in the first place only to make a U-turn? Remember what’s good for the goose should also apply to the gander.
Furthermore, if my recollection serves me correctly, activities in the country’s topflight league are to kick off in a fortnight’s time, so where does the issue of insufficient preparation tie in here? I’m just asking.
To my learned colleagues at Football House, let me remind you of Fifa Fair Play – don’t play the man play the ball – seriously extending individual invitations to bona fide NPL affiliates is totally offside.
The composition of this august tourney is not a true or rather fair reflection of the game’s demographics whatsoever the modus operandi entails. This exercise deprives the sponsors of getting maximum mileage they so dearly deserve – let us not fool ourselves in this regard.
In addition, giving teams byes into the next round of the competition by default which resulted from the withdrawal of the six NPL teams is a grave mistake, in fact a poorly executed decision, to say the least.
The honourable thing to do would have been to engage in round table deliberations between the two parties to iron out their differences and find an amicable solution but sadly, whales of egos have become the order of the day within domestic football.
In conclusion, clubs should also take the plight of their players, the real McCoys of their togetherness, into consideration because these blokes need to put food on the table notwithstanding the fact that they also have bills to settle.
These ongoing shenanigans are surely not going to win the game a few friends, let alone entice interest from the corporate world. Enjoy your weekend, Cheerio !!!