WINDHOEK – The Brave Warriors’ embarrassing lukewarm performance in their decisive final 2019 Afcon qualifier against Zambia was overshadowed by demands and threats as disgruntled squad members tried to force the country’s football authorities to hand over win bonuses.
New Era Sport is in possession of a letter authored and signed by veteran Warriors’ skipper Ronald Ketjijere, on the eve of the team’s crunch match against Chipolopolo on Saturday.
Namibia went into the match with one foot set in Egypt – win, draw or lose and only an unlikely defeat for hosts Guinea Bissau in their final Group-K match against the visiting Mozambique would have halted Namibia from making her 3rd appearance at the continental showpiece.
In a brief response to the FIFA-appointed Namibia Football Association (NFA) Normalization Committee (NC) the players told the uncompromising NC in no uncertain terms where to get off. This after the committee turned down a request by the players to beef up their win bonuses should the team qualify for the 2019 Afcon finals to be hosted in Egypt, later this year.
In the letter, the players threatened to ground their flight to Lusaka if their demands were not met satisfactorily.
The players were demanding a fee of N$180,000 per player for steering the country through the qualifying rounds – notwithstanding win bonuses already paid out during the marathon qualification rounds. Meanwhile, sources with intimate knowledge to the money debacle say the players were promised hefty bonuses should the team qualify for Afcon and are only demanding what rightfully belongs to Caesar.
It has since emerged that the disgruntled players were owed historical outstanding monies from the previous administration, which the NC duly settled in an effort to start on a clean slate.
However, the players wanted to engage the NC over qualification bonuses but the NC was not ready to be drawn into the issue and referred the matter to the portfolio ministry.
Government’s timely intervention appears to have calmed down the feud between the two parties though it’s not known whether the mentioned fee has been agreed upon or not.