THOSE who are blessed with a great sense of memory will recall my whispers when the top dogs of Katutura football glamour football club African Stars, flanked by members of the country’s football governing body, (NFA) and charismatic chairman of the MTC Namibia Premiership proudly pronounced that they had buried the hatchet.
This was after the aggrieved Stars took football authorities to court after the NPL threatened to expel the club from all football-related activities for alleged misconduct.
In the run up to this ugly debacle, name calling took centrestage until the divine intervention (or so I took it for granted) by the club’s heavyweights to find an amicable solution to the ugly spat that threatened to bring the game of football into disrepute.
My somewhat oversized nostrils smelt a rat and somehow I knew that we have not seen the last of these shenanigans, despite admission by all the concerned parties present at the hastily arranged gathering that the issue was now water under the bridge. However, yours truly’s close to three decades of pen-pushing in the area of sports coverage made me to dig deeper and follow my subconscious mind. The conspicuous absence of especially one of the important figures in the dispute, the Real McCoy, Mr Sidney Martin of Stars caused butterflies to freely run riot in my bloated belly.
This prompted yours truly to whisper into the ears of my young fellows media colleagues that we have not seen the last of this debacle.
Knowing the customary uncompromising stance of the chairman, I sensed, and rightly so, that the Namibian business mogul will not settle for all the nonsense that was fed to journos at what was meant to be a ground-breaking announcement that all parties have smoked the peace pipe in the interest of the game.
The brother is certainly not your kind of bloke around the street corner, who would comb his hair for nothing. My suspicion is now confirmed with news that Martin has dragged NPL strongman Johnny “JJD” Doeseb to court over accusations of defamation and character assassination.
Since the often outspoken Doeseb was representing the country’s flagship league the NPL – of which Martin is an affiliate to the NPL doings through his affiliation with his club African Stars – it remains to be seen as to what action the league will consider against a member taking the association to court irrespective of the severity of the offense.
Martin’s actions, be it in his personal capacity or the club’s – could be perceived as having brought the game of football into disrepute and could have far-reaching repercussions for future relations.
Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill Heita!!! did I hear that Brave Warriors coach Ricardo Mannetti has cancelled a planned coaching course aimed at polishing his misfiring strikers, nogal.
With all due respect, my dear brother I cannot put my finger on the pulse as to how Mannetti, whom I respected as holding midfielder in his heyday with both the National team, Civics, Santos and Bush Bucks, will be able to show our misfiring strikers the art of goal scoring given his own patchy goal-scoring resume locally and internationally.
My honest advice to my dear brother is; rope in the services of retired proven net busters. You don’t need look afar, we have them right in front of our doors, Pius Eogowab, Lemmy Narib, Orlando Damaseb, Celle Auchumeb, Steve Stephanus, Ben Gaseb. Aagh, the list is endless. I rest my case.