Windhoek
The Namibia Football Association (NFA) held its 26th ordinary congress at the Atlantic Hotel, Walvis Bay in Erongo Region on Saturday, and as per the NFA statutes the congress was attended by all its 20 affiliated members.
NFA’s 20 affiliates are the Namibia Premier League (NPL), the three Nationwide First Division Leagues (North-East, North-West and Southern Streams), 14 Second Division Leagues that are regional-based, the Women Football League and the Referees’ Association.
Like any ordinary congress, the aim of the assembly is to, amongst other deliberations, review the operations of the NFA during the 2015/2016 football season, to review and introduce, if necessary, policies governing the operations of the NFA and also to keep members abreast of developments at national, continental and global level.
Chief amongst the many resolutions taken at the congress was the endorsement of the Namibia Football Players’ Union’s (NAFPU) resignation from the NFA, finally allowing NAFPU to operate as an independent trade union and not as an affiliate of the NFA.
Another noteworthy resolution taken at the congress was that a new football season format would be introduced, which will see the Namibian football season starting in February and ending in November each year. According to the NFA, the new format is aimed at accommodating the country’s searing climate and to allow national teams to be in good shape during continental and international matches.
“Despite the challenges we faced and are facing, particularly the economic downtrend, we have successfully managed to honour all 22 international matches during the season just ended. This includes the matches of the senior men (Brave Warriors), the under 20 boys, the under 17 boys, the senior women team (Brave Gladiators), the under 20 and under 17 girls’ teams. It is worthwhile to note that it is the first time that all our youth teams managed to reach the second round of their respective competitions. In addition, our Brave Warriors have performed well to improve our position in the FIFA rankings to the top 100 (98th to be specific),” reads the NFA statement.
The statement continues: “Other milestones are the completion of construction and henceforth the opening of the Girl Centre at Football House through the funding support of GIZ, and the development and improvement of football pitches for the development of youth football in Ohangwena Region, funded by FIFA and GIZ.”
The congress adopted the recommendations of the fact finding mission that NFA president Frans Mbidi commissioned to acquaint himself and the executive committee with challenges facing the association and to seek informed advice towards mechanisms of addressing the challenges.
The congress delegates were particularly happy to learn that policies such as for finance and human resources will be introduced and be implemented on April 1, 2017.ers