2018-04-06Staff Report 2 …Let us not fish in troubled waters Yours truly has been following carefully, with an eagle’s eye, the ongoing shenanigans engulfing the top hierarchy of domestic football. What is currently at play here is the outdated biblical philosophy of an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth – an extremely dangerous exercise that obviously leaves everybody blind. For starters, football, let alone the Namibia Football Association (NFA), is a public entity and should be treated accordingly. Many a neutral football fan might recall that there has never been a case of theft reported from the beautiful game of football though the dominant view among the uniformed is that money is being swindled out of football coffers. The bone of contention is the staggering amount of US$20,000 (N$236,000) yearly grant earmarked for the NFA President, referred to as “Compensatory Allowance” to the Presidents of Associations. Valuable information gathered from reliable sources within the corridors of Football House revealed that NFA received a hefty annual grant of US$100,000 to be divided as follows: US$50,000 is for youth football, US$30,000 for match official indemnities with the remainder (US$20,000) set aside for the Association’s seating President. As it stands, there is no clear indication whether this money is for the president’s personal use or for official assignments. In the conspicuous absence of directives or guidelines as to how this money should be utilised and for what purposes, the president might be within his rights to demand that the money be paid over to his personal account. All these things boil down to accountability and lack of transparency. The public has been kept in the dark for far too long about the association’s finances. Yours truly seriously doubts that all these dozens of reported wrongdoings would have been thrown into the public domain had certain blokes within the association not fallen out with the president. I’m just wondering. There is an element of personal bias in this whole exercise, which softens the edges of moral outrage - thus blurring the lines of proper conduct. Who decides ultimately? What role do we as football followers have or play of the game we follow with such great passion and endurance to keep stray football administrators on the straight and narrow. I’m just asking. It should be well consumed that FIFA is an autonomous body that does not tolerate outside interference and our football leaders are conveniently finding refuge in the FIFA statutes to avoid possible prosecution. Truth be told, collecting N$11,000 for “Out of Town Allowance” is way beyond any imagination given our economic hardships, notwithstanding the Association’s own fragile financial standing. Allowance should be demarcated from country to country, for instance, within the Southern African Development Community, rest of Africa and overseas trips. While I am not against the damning accusations levelled against the NFA president, yours truly is inclined to conclude that Mbidi is being held hostage for his wayward handling of the secretary-general’s contract renewal. Finally, the fundamental question that needs to be addressed is; why did all these cases not come to the fore since some of them happened ages ago as far as three years back. Am I then going to stand accused of ignorance and being biased if I conclude that the NFA Executive was only made aware of these transgressions now? I rest my case. 2018-04-06Staff Report 2
