By Carlos Kambaekwa
WINDHOEK
Despite Namibia’s worrisome downward spiral journey on the field of play – the country is certainly making serious inroads into international football off the field.
Namibia’s only female representative on the Namibia Football Association Executive Committee Jacky Gertze has been invited by the Angolans to be a guest speaker at the first ever Workshop for Women Football in that country.
Gertze has been requested by the Angolan football authorities to take them through the ropes in the finer points of women football, as the Angolans embark on an aggressive drive to get proper structures in place for their women’s football at all levels.
According to sources close to the football association in that country – the Angolans have been extremely impressed by Gertze’s project “Development of Women Football in Namibia”, under the auspices of the Namibian Football Association (NFA).
The likeable football administrator leaves for Luanda next Monday, and is expected back in the country on the 4th of next month.
Gertze’s departure follows hot on the heels of another milestone by a Namibian football administrator.
Veteran FIFA Accredited Match Commissioner Frans “Killa” Samaria has just returned from a FIFA-CAF Match Commissioners’ Workshop held in the Egyptian capital Cairo, last week.
The one-day workshop was initiated by the world’s football governing body with the primary aim of sharpening the skills of match commissioners ahead of the preliminary qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa.
The preliminaries will also serve as the qualifying platform for the 2010 African Cup of Nations finals to be hosted by Angola.
Speaking to New Era Sports from his home in Walvis Bay yesterday, Samaria said the seminar dealt with the latest technologies of the game concerning the men in black (referees).
“The main issue was how to access referees executing the functions during matches and the majority of attendants have now been upgraded to FIFA match commissioners as opposed to the past when we were only restricted to CAF competitions,” added the veteran football administrator and gangly former Eleven Arrows defender.
The workshop was attended by Africa’s football heavyweights with the bulk of entrants consisting of presidents from various associations on the African continent.
The president of the Confederation of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) Suketu Patel, newly elected president of the Zambian Football Association Kalusha Bwalya as well as the Molefi Olifant from SAFA, were also in attendance.
However, the president of the Namibian Football Association (NFA) John Muinjo, was a notable absentee.
Muinjo is already a FIFA-CAF accredited referees’ assessor and match commissioner and had no business being in Cairo for the matter.