By Kuvee Kangueehi WINDHOEK MOBILE Telecommunication Limited (MTC) raised eyebrows once again when it announced the biggest single sponsorship in Namibian football, sponsoring the Namibia Football Association Cup to the tune of over N$ 1 million in the capital yesterday. Senior Manager of Corporate Services at the MTC Albertus Aochamub made the announcement yesterday at the launch. Speaking at the launch, Aochamub said his company is proud to be associated with the competition as well as the Namibia Football Association. He says that he hopes that during the competition exceptional talent will be on display. “We are very much aware that the competition will also come as a challenge to team administrators but are confident that you can manage it.” On his part the President of the NFA Petrus Damaseb commended MTC for their huge sponsorship and said the company occupies a special place in the Namibia Football Consortium. Damaseb noted that the recently concluded FNB Cup has set high standards and he hopes that the MTC NFA Cup could improve on that. The competition’s first round, billed for the towns of Mariental and Tsumeb respectively, will showcase 16 Premier League teams from the 2004/2005 soccer season, four teams from the First Division of the 2004/2005 and 13 regional winners from the same soccer season. At the launch on Wednesday at the NFA Soccer House, it was announced that the winning team will walk away with a cool N$350 000 while the runner-up is to take home N$130 000 with the two semi-finalists pocketing N$60 000 each. Additional awards categories such as the player of the series and top goal scorer of the series will be N$2 000 richer while the referee of the series, assistant referee, coach, team of the series, goalkeeper, team manager, electronic media and print media of the series will each be rewarded with N$1 500 for their sweat. Participating teams will receive travelling assistance amounting to N$1 000 in each round of the tournament. The second round will take place on 17 and 18 February, the third round is scheduled for 28 and 29 April and the quarterfinal is billed for 26 and 27 May while the semis and final will take place on 1 and 2 July. Venues for the various competition rounds will be announced at a later stage. The first round matches will take place from 14 to 15 January at Tsumeb and Mariental. Initially 33 teams will vie for the lucrative competition with two teams from the regional winners scheduled to play an elimination match to have a total of 32 teams of which the winner will take on Blue Birds from Omusati Region in Group A. Blue Birds got a bye during the draw. Windhoek Optics Ramblers is the defending champion after having beaten Black Africa on a penalty shoot-out by 5-4, after the two sides drew two-all at the end of the 30 minutes of extra time. The schedule is as follows: Tsumeb- Group A Black Hawks vs Golden Bees Kinacor Minolta Eleven Arrows vs Namundjebo F C Windhoek Optics Ramblers vs Mighty Gunners Blue Waters vs KK Palace Marathon Sugar Chief Santos vs Volcano F C Touch and Go vs Play Save Life Fighters Oshakati City vs Benfica Young Chiefs vs United Stars Arsenal vs Gariseb Orlando Mariental- Group B African Stars vs Young Eleven Cymot SKW vs Starlite Friends Orlando Pirates vs Flying Eagles Civics vs Black Morocco Chiefs (BMC) United Africa Tigers vs African Blizzards Black Africa vs Diamond City Deportivo Alaves vs Desert Rollers – Additional reporting Nampa