NAMIBIA’S turn – one probably needs to be a truly patriotic Namibian to appreciate what these words mean in the context of juggernaut and continental sporting get-togethers.
It’s now an open secret that the Namibia Football Association (NFA) under the jurisdiction of the portfolio ministry and, I guess, the City of Windhoek undertook to host the CAF African Women’s Championships in the Namibian capital in October this year.
Collective national pride will be required to make this continental showpiece a success and this will not be achieved with the customary chest beating for being accorded the distinct honour of staging such an august gathering.
Well, this is a sporting event rising to the peak of the pecking order of several high-profile non-sporting events hosted successfully by Namibia and not something that should be treated purely as a given.
The local media has been strangely kept in the dark for reasons only known to the powers that be at Football House and not a single word has been uttered as to who has been commissioned to oversee the overall organization of this continental showpiece.
Namibia has been given a lifetime opportunity to stage an unforgettable continental jamboree that thankfully arrived after excellent lobbying which yours truly supposed was a well articulated bidding process.
Sports, and football in particular, have a more important role to play than what many people would realize and while sport is all about winning and competitiveness – it’s also about the upliftment of people and an ideal platform to escape a disadvantaged background and an opportunity to develop.
Football in Namibia is at the forefront of developing people and women in particular as can be attested by the vast number of women’s involvement in organized football structures. One can also not ignore the sizeable number of women attending local league matches on a regular basis.
It’s very strange, suspicious and extremely unheard of that NFA has up to now not even commissioned a marketing entity to run an eye over this very important organ to organize a sporting event of such magnitude – let alone call to life a Local Organizing Committee (LOC).
Yours truly’s advice to football authorities is please swallow your pride, at least for the time being, and do away with the habitual job-for-the-boys attitude. As a matter of urgency, please rope in people with a sober understanding of a variety of issues such as broadcast rights, marketing, contracts, doping, insurance and many other logistics required to stage a near faultless event that will leave a long lasting impression.
The chickens have finally come home to roost
The bold decision by the Namibia Premier League (NPL) Management Committee (MC) to order a replay of the abandoned MTC Premiership clash between Orlando Pirates and African Stars for the remaining minutes has sent tongues wagging among football pundits and followers of the beautiful game.
The particular rule that the MC conveniently has found refuge in for its decision to have the match replayed over the remaining minutes does not clearly stipulate the actual course of action, rather than that the MC will have the sole discretion.
In all honesty, Stars were against the ropes on that particular night and only a miracle could have saved them from a looming embarrassing defeat. However, the question on many a football fan’s lips is how did the MC apply their minds to determine whether the power outage that caused the match to be prematurely halted was manmade or a natural disaster. I’m just asking.
This sort of unpleasantness could have been easily avoided if there was an independent, competent Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) in place. As long as we have blokes with close ties to clubs serving on decision-making bodies within football, their credibility and level of fairness will always come under the microscope. I’m just asking.
Does it perhaps ring a bell as to why some of these okes are always hesitant to recuse themselves when a conflict of interest might occur, in essence compromising their impartiality – knowing very well that they have vested interest in the outcome of the judgment and whatever sanction is passed will surely compromise their integrity. I rest my case.