The Namibia Football Association (NFA) and Brave Warriors assistant coach Woody Jacobs are on a collision course and their relationship on the verge of collapse, following a disagreement over a purported unfair remuneration package.
Jacobs, through his legal representatives, wrote to NFA acting secretary-general Franco Cosmos expressing his unhappiness with the remuneration package currently offered to him by the FA, which only caters for his appearance and call up fees.
Despite his current remuneration package offering him appearance and call up fees, Jacobs is demanding that the NFA should start remunerating him on a monthly basis as opposed to paying him sporadically through appearance and call up fees.
In his letter to Cosmos, which New Era Sport has seen, Jacobs drew comparison with Brave Warriors head coach Bobby Samaria, saying Samaria gets a monthly salary on top of the appearance and call up fees, but the same treatment is not extended to him.
Jacobs also complained about Brave Warriors fitness coach Charl Botha, whom he claims also gets a monthly salary on top of the appearance and call up fees, but not him. He feels unfairly treated and calls upon the FA to immediately revisit his remuneration package and start paying him monthly like Samaria and Botha.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Cosmos slammed Jacobs’ demands terming them absurd and outside the traditional scope of how assistant coaches are remunerated by the association.
“First of all, Woody does not have a contract with the NFA to make such demands. The NFA only has an employment contract with coach Bobby Samaria and that’s why Samaria’s situation is different. He (Woody) was recommended to the NFA by Samaria as per the traditional norm because the FA doesn’t go into fixed contracts with assistant coaches but only with the head coach, who in turn appoints his own technical team. Once the head coach has forwarded the names of his preferred technical team to the FA, we just approve it on that basis. For assistant coaches, the tradition has always been that they are paid appearance and call up fees and that is the situation with Woody. So I don’t know where he is getting all these ideas,” said Cosmos.
Cosmos further said as far as appearance and call up fees, Jacobs has been paid every penny owed to him by the association for qualifying Namibia to the 2020 African Nations Championship (Chan) tournament, which was postponed as a result of Covid-19 and for other matches involving the Warriors under their tenure.
Asked by this publication for further elaboration, Jacobs maintained his stance saying he has an agreement with the NFA, which resulted in him being appointed assistant coach and thus deserves to be fairly remunerated through a monthly salary like his colleagues.
“I have an appointment letter from the NFA to that effect, so what other agreement are they talking about? The situation is unfair and can’t continue like this,” said a dismayed Jacobs.