WINDHOEK – Having already expressed satisfaction with the professionalism and good organisation of the African Women Championship underway in Windhoek, Confederation of African Football (CAF) President, Issa Hayatou, urged the Namibian government to consider hosting the African Cup of Nations in the future.
Hayatou, who yesterday paid a courtesy call to Prime Minister Hage Geingob, said he was impressed and equally surprised by Namibia’s effortless commitment in striving for perfection when it comes to organising events of such magnitude. He added that lots of hosts nations many a time fall victim to bad publicity due to their failure to pay attention to small aspects, such as proper transport, accommodation and training venues for visiting teams.
“I was even surprised by the two venues, Sam Nujoma and Independence Stadiums. They are great stadiums with world class facilities and if Namibia can add one or two more such stadiums, I really don’t see why you should not flirt with idea of hosting the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in the near future,” said the African football supremo.
Before moving on to shower praise on the NFA for its tremendous achievements in the development of women football in Africa, Hayatou expressed concern with the poor attendance of spectators at some matches of the Championship but, however, urged the association to do an extra mile in luring more people through the turnstiles.
On his part, Geingob thanked Hayatou and the entire CAF family for according Namibia the opportunity to stage the women’s competition. He said the gesture has once again demonstrated CAF’s seriousness in taking the development of women’s football to all corners of the continent.
“Namibia really appreciates what CAF and its leader Hayatou is doing in terms of developing African football at all levels. However, we as a continent have a lot to do in order to achieve our objectives, such as increasing the number of African teams at the World Cup, amongst other challenges”.
As for Namibia hosting the AFCON, Geingob, with tongue in-cheek, “Bring it on! If it’s the stadiums that we need to increase than we will gladly do so but I can assure that Namibia has the capacity to host an event of that nature. After hosting this women’s competition, we will then do a SWOT Analysis as a country, as it will give us an idea going forward but we definitely have what it takes to host the AFCON,”