Carlos Kambaekwa
Windhoek-All the trauma of the last couple of months has been temporarily put on ice, at least for the time being, following months of uncertainty and a dark cloud hovering ominously over the future of Namibian football.
After a self-imposed hiatus – lasting more than a season and a half – domestic topflight football is finally going to make a long awaited return to our shores when the troubled Namibia Premier League (NPL) resumes activities this weekend.
Though the 2017/2018 Football League campaign is yet to be officially launched, New Era Sport has it on good authority that league activities are bound get underway in earnest on Friday, October 20.
The country’s flagship football league came to an unfortunate standstill when league authorities and their principal sponsor, MTC, could not reach an amicable agreement for a requested additional N$9 million needed to kickstart league activities.
Sadly, the unfolding dilemma was to shape the convolution of the entire football hierarchy, culminating in the exit of charismatic NPL honcho, Johnny ‘JJD’ Doeseb, after MTC pulled the plug on its marathon sponsorship commitment towards the country’s top football league, the NPL.
This prompted a change in guard and led to the drafting of a new constitution in an effort to pave the way for the appointment of new executive members under the stewardship of Patrick Kauta, the strongman of Katutura glamour football club African Stars.
Those with intimate knowledge of the chronic behind-the-door maneuverings in the inner circles at Football House let it slip recently that the league has finally reached an agreement with old hands MTC and FNB for a combined sponsorship fee of N$20 million for the upcoming term.
Insiders say the much-anticipated sponsorship deal will be signed in Windhoek later today.
In the meantime, the NPL administrative office has issued league fixtures for the current term. The appetising fixtures start with a mouth-watering tie when bitter rivals Orlando Pirates and African Stars resume their rivalry in the opening match of the 2017/2018 season at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on Friday evening, in what promises to be an intriguing clash of the titans under floodlights.