Well, they don’t say it loud but persisting whispers flirting throughout the narrow corridors of Football House, has it that tension between the country’s football honcho, Frans Mbidi and his subjects has reached a boiling point.

In short, there seems to be a point of no redemption in the broken relationship, to the extent that the sheriff has been effectively rendered redundant while he has ostensibly resolved to keep his “powerful” sub-ordinates at arms-length in an effort to avoid a potential catastrophic head on collusion.

Those in the know say they have generally and widely observed that Mbidi has of late been avoiding at all costs going anywhere near the Football Head Quarters (HQ) for quite some time now.

This is very strange isn’t? And what gives these worrisome rumours some kind of weight is the sudden nasty attitude and public attacks towards the NFA president.  

When the general is being randomly castigated by his junior staff members on public platform, boldly reminded in no uncertain terms to keep his loud mouth shut because those who live in glass houses are strictly prohibited from throwing stones - then we are inclined and rightly so, to believe that trouble is indeed brewing in paradise.

Now, let us get to the bottom of this as we pick up the bones of the unending shenanigans in the top echelons of our football. Well, every story has a face and it seems the frosty relationship between the country’s two football heavyweights Frans Mbidi and Barry Rukoro has certainly reached a road to nowhere. 

And whilst the entire country is rejoicing in the aftermath of the Brave Warriors sudden change of fortunes en route to qualifying for its third AFCON appearance – it has been a sad case off the field. 
The comedy has now turned into nasty exercise, coloured in finger pointing, insults and counter accusations between some members of the directorate and the country’s football honcho Frans Mbidi.

The latter fell prey to his colleagues’ disgust from the day he “prematurely” made it known in no uncertain terms that the association’s long serving Secretary-General, Barry Rukoro’s employment contract would not be renewed.

This announcement did not exactly go well down the throats of some of his subjects (executive members) - a significant chunk of them known to be Rukoro’s close allies. In the ensuing brouhaha, the executive called Mbidi to order - threatening to file a motion of no confidence should he persists with plans to see the back of the SG upon expiry of his contract in absence of proper procedures being followed. 

Unfortunately, this entire exercise has injected an unfortunate and unnecessary “tribal theme” into the debate. 
It seems the SG himself is not short of arrogance bragging loudly that he would vacate office at any given time, obviously tailed by his current boss (Mbidi) whom he claims to have masterminded his entry into football structures and thus he (Barry) won’t go down without taking Mbidi along. 

This is a very dangerous statement, which could easily and rightly so, interpreted that the SG has in fact more power than his immediate supervisor since he was ostensibly the architect behind Mbidi’s smooth entrance into the plum position of NFA president.      

As it stands, it looks like Mbidi has lost total control and absolute confidence of his subjects, including some members of the directorate who have made it their sole beat to berate the NFA president on social media at the slightest provocation – without any signs of reprimand in sight. 

As a result of all these unfolding events, Namibian football is being held hostage by those saddled with big egos. It’s now back to square one as we are exactly back to where we were before Petrus Damaseb took over the reins and revamped the entire football setup to a respectable entity in world football.

It should be noted that the latter came from nowhere in terms of previous experience in football administration at club or regional level but he proved to the doubting Thomases wrong. It should be noted that rules are not iron casted and can be amended since they are man-made and can be altered should the situation demand likewise.

These clauses that prohibit potential candidates from entering the race for executive positions within the NFA structures is just a cock and bull story, obviously systematically tailored to discourage competent people from standing for election. 
Dear Namibians, football followers in particular, let’s revisit the NFA constitution, make amendments that would allow potential candidates to raise their hands, if we are to stop the rot. I rest my case.