The MTC HopSol Soccer Youth League kicked off with exciting fixtures over the weekend at the Sport Klub Windhoek (SKW) and Ramblers Sports Club in the capital.

Speaking to Nampa after the completion of matches at SKW on Saturday, Collin Benjamin, the founder of the youth league, said that with the new normal they found the going tough during the registration process but as time passed everything went according to plan. “We were following all the guidelines as set out by the Namibia Sports Commission and all relevant authorities. We did the registering of players and taking of temperature at the stadium gates, which took up time as we had queues but I am happy that we followed the procedures which we will continue doing with all our remaining league matches,” Benjamin said.

He added that they did not allow parents to watch matches as they had to keep the numbers of people at the stadium under the required 100 people. Benjamin said that with schools still not open some teams did not honour their fixtures but that’s something they will have to work on with upcoming fixtures.

“With the remaining games, we are now aware that some schools will not have teams because the re-opening of schools got extended and some players will still be out of town. As a league we will sit and then reschedule most fixtures. No team will be forced to fulfil their fixtures if they don’t have players; this will be communicated with all teams and those available will then be scheduled to play in the remaining league fixtures,” he said.

Benjamin further said they are still going ahead with their selection team camp scheduled for 11 to 13 September for the Under-13, U-15 and U-17 players. Selected coaches will be at the various pitches during the league games to scout for players that will form part of the selection team camp. – Nampa