RUNDU – North East Stream First Division (NESFD) chairperson Rudolf ‘Sahaya’ Mupiri has commended Rundu-based club Julinho Sporting FC for their continuous outstanding performance in the country’s flagship football league, the MTC Namibia Premier League.
“For the past five seasons, our teams from the North East Stream First Division go to the premier league and fall back and every time they qualify for premier league in most cases they end up being relegated, unlike in the Southern Stream Division who every year get intakes into the league and they fight to remain in the NPL. So the performance that Julinho is showing at the moment is giving us hope that if they remain consistent they won’t be relegated come end of the season,” Mupiri said. “And that is our wish that if they are not relegated we should make sure that in the new season the winner of the North-East First Division stream must also join Julinho in the premier league and remain there,” he added.
Mupiri says Julinho FC need encouragement from all the teams that are from the north-east stream, saying: “And that is what we want from teams from this stream, they should remain and compete in the premier league and not just participate and later get dropped back into lower leagues,” he noted.
Mupiri says it is important that Julinho get the necessary support and attention at this stage of the season.
“Our premier league must be balanced, the majority shouldn’t just be teams from the central parts of the country or southern parts, the league must compose of teams that are competing from different parts of the country. These very same players took Julinho to the premier league and they kept playing when they got there, so other teams must learn from that. They must trust their players when they get to the NPL. In most cases players are dropped by teams after gaining promotion to the NPL and those replacements don’t play for the region proudly,” he noted.