Shooting from the Hip Carlos Kambaekwa The allocation of match tickets to football associations for the FIFA World cup finals underway in Germany were designed with the primary aim of injecting some sort of moola into financially struggling FIFA affiliates, but alas, this well-meant exercise was totally misinterpreted by the likes of Ismael Bhamjee and some greedy dudes who are hell-bent on turning the beautiful game into an ugly business entity. How on bloody earth would any logically thinking and confirmed individual ever come to terms with the shoddy fashion in which the Namibian Football Association conducted her business when the situation presented itself to generate some needed cash. The cash-strapped Association sourced 280 tickets from the world’s football governing body with the view to selling them to potential buyers, and there were plenty of those in this country for the simple reason the World Cup finals were this time around not held in Korea or some reclusive environment – Germany is the pozzie for the global showpiece and thousands of Namibians have close ties with the host nation my brrra!! So, it does certainly not take a rocket scientist to dribble his way around the begging opportunity of laying your hands onto some steady foreign currency without having to shed an ounce of sweat in the process. For some strange reasons, an employee of the NFA took it upon himself to find a “Suitable Agency” beyond our borders for the marketing of tickets, while a good number of locals were queuing up to have a share of the cake, but this dude who appears to have become a law unto himself would have none of it and instead opted to contract some chirpy from the Cape, nogal Velddrif. And to rub salt into the wound, this “Suitable Agency” had the sole liberty to dictate the terms on how to share proceeds generated from the sales, which eventually saw the Association finding themselves at the short end of the stick. The tickets were sold at 20% more than the face value and the third party smiled all the way to the bank after conclusion of business, and who would not if you could slice off a handsome 60% in commission fees, while the real McCoy was left to pick up the morsels. Surely, this sort of business deal invites lots of debate – firstly, was the Executive aware of the scraggy percentage the Association was going to receive from the sales of the tickets, and if not, who mandated the implicated employee to conclude such an off-the-wall business deal, to say the least, in the absence of consultation with those who pay the bills. Further investigation revealed FIFA wanted upfront payment to release the tickets upon request hence the recruitment of the foreign agent who made the money available since the NFA did not have the required moola at the time. So, shall we then conclude the Namibian Football Association could only breed a bony profit of around about N$22 000 from the sale of 280 World Cup tickets, while the third party had to visit the local tailor for some sort of adjustments to the size of his pockets – somebody will have piles of explanations to do before I rest this case. In the meantime, let us play the wait-and-see-game and allow the Association some breathing space to deal with the matter and most probably apply appropriate measures because this scenario clearly justifies some sort of further scrutiny and subsequent discussion with all stakeholders if we are to eradicate such clownish deals in future. While on football matters, I must say I’m swimming in a pool of confusion with the manner in which the NFA hierarchy conducted itself by cold-shouldering members of the “Interim Committee” during last weekend’s Press Briefing on the findings of deliberations between the FIFA Development Officer Ashford Mamelodi and all domestic stakeholders. I don’t appreciate the deliberate exclusion of key members from the concerned party when the bulky Botswana national addressed the media after his fact-finding mission on the request of FIFA. Though it was not loudly spelled out, it was clearly evident the current NFA Executive does not recognize the existence of the “Interim Committee”, and thus would have no further business with the “troublesome bunch” – fair enough, but why did the very same entity then facilitate an audience for the disgruntled members with the FIFA representative – ja, football bosses would just never cease to amaze me!!. Hokaai, let’s call it a day for the time being – I’ll be back with more zip next Friday, so until then, enjoy the rest of the weekend and please make time to cruise around the city and cheer our youngsters during the Zone Six Under-20 Youth Games. Remember, the youth are the future of tomorrow and need all our support.