Maqonda Ndlovu
Hesron Kapanga
Blue Waters Sports Club and Namibia Premier Football League chairperson, Robert Shimooshili, was elected the new Namibia Football Association (NFA) president at the 32nd NFA ordinary elective congress.
Shimooshili beat his rival Patrick Kauta by 19 votes against 15.
The congress was attended by 78 delegates, although only 34 were eligible to vote for the new NFA Executive Council (Exco), which will run the country’s football affairs for the next four years.
Namibian football has been under the administration of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) Normalisation Committee for the past two years, due to the in-fighting in recent years that brought the sport to a standstill for nearly three years.
The newly elected president promised the Namibian football fraternity that his committee had decided to unite and take the game further, with their main objective being tolerance.
“Action will be more than just the word. We once again assure the football fraternity that there will be no single infighting in the game,” he said.
Speaking to New Era Sport yesterday, Shimooshili said football was the winner, and their immediate task will be to make sure all the lower leagues start their fixtures programme.
“All the regions must have offices to operate from. We also need to capacitate our administrators to make sure that they run football the right way. This issue of infrastructure is also urgent; we will engage the government to make sure the process of rehabilitating the Independence Stadium is speeded up,” he said.
Shimooshili said they will work hard to build a trusted NFA brand that will be able to attract sponsorship.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service, Emma Kantema-Gaomas, urged the new executives to execute their duties diligently and refrain from interfering with the day-to-day running of the office.
“Those of you standing for positions, you must separate the roles of the executives and administrators, as most of the time people clash when the executives want to take over the administration part of the business,” she said.
In his concession speech, Kauta wished his counterparts the best in running the affairs of football in the country.
“As an individual, I would no longer run any other election at the NFA in the future, but I wish those voted in power to run football for the best interest of the game as they are football people,” Kauta said.
The NFA Exco members are Shimooshili (president), Murs Markus (vice-president), Laurence Kandundu, Joseph Hailombe, Precious Chaka, Rafael Kamuyoyo, Egidius Nambara, Michael Situde. Monica Shapwa, the incumbent chairperson of the NFA Women’s Football Association, is an automatic member of the executive council.
The newly elected officials will hold their first meeting tomorrow.
– jrnmarko@gmail.com / Nampa