Carlos Kambaekwa
The Namibian Rugby Fifteen’s good showing at the World Cup finals under way in France has been unnecessarily overshadowed by nasty events off the field.
If the latest revelation about the mafia style in which the Namibian Rugby Union has been going about its beat is anything to go by, an aggressive skill audit at Lichtenstein Street is imminent.
The storm has been provoked by the Union’s handling of the Rugby World Cup’s ticket regulations.
The International Rugby Board has produced a stinking report, fingering the Namibian Rugby Union for all sorts of wrongdoings.
The troubled Union finds itself in the dock for sidestepping regulations governing the sales of World Cup tickets after it emerged that proceeds generated from ticket sales trickled down to a different hole, rather than its intended destination.
The International Rugby Board resolved to ground the entire NRU Executive, including its President, with immediate effect – by extension, withdrawing their VIP Accreditation for the World Cup finals, much to the irritation of the wanderlust Rugby officials.
The defiant Union retaliated with a hastily arranged Press Conference in a desperate bid to clear the air surrounding the damning revelations, which could potentially signal the end of Dirk Conradie’s rather disapproved flirtation with sacred property.
I took great pity on Keith Allies, who was deployed as a Hatchet Man in the absence of any official from the NRU, because the wanderlust Executive have taken up temporary residence in Bordeaux while the President was jostling with the IRB down under in the Mother City to activate his Charles De Gaulle-bound Business Class ticket.
The much-anticipated media briefing yielded very little as the press release, which was not inked on the Union’s letterhead, did not deny nor acknowledge accusations levelled against it by World’s Rugby governing body.
The three-page document signed by the NRU President elected to engage in a scrimmage against its disgruntled Finance Administrator Pieter Fick, who was offloaded as a result of his refusal to be caged in a less glamorous position at Lichtenstein Street.
With a sizeable chunk of that grey substance tucked between his ears infested with all the do’s and dont’s of the law, it would be pointless to ask the learned brother whether it is appropriate to channel proceeds from ticket sales into his “private” bank account, or that of his “personal” law firm – it’s the same piece of crap with just different flies.
It’s indisputable that the entire exercise reflects on recklessness, which anxiously invites the answer whether those entrusted with the affairs of Rugby are still fit enough, if they were ever, to remain in office after this debacle, unless we are hell-bent on placing the interest of Rugby secondary.
It would be fair to say that the sharp-tongued Rugby boss has become a liability to the oval ball game, and should perhaps take the bold step and keep a healthy distance away from the VIP lounge at the Hage Geingob Stadium.
Affiliates should learn to remove leaders purely out of rationally thought-out principles, because allowing somebody to stay in charge for far too long make him to be corrupted by power, and grow a head the size of the moon, to the extent that he starts believing that he was born for that position and literally claims natural title to it.
If reports are true that an Executive Member of the Commission, whom I personally hold in high esteem, got a hand in the World Cup ticket sales, that would constitute a conflict of interest, after all, who would investigate who?
We might just as well revert to the old adage of “you scratch my back and I scratch yours”.
Yours truly has always, and still maintains, that there’s a cartel within some sporting disciplines in our midst and the Rugby World Cup tickets is just the tip on the iceberg, and this time around the buck stops with the National Sports Commission – period!.
By and large, the primary togetherness of the Commission is to ensure that all National Sports and Umbrella Bodies are complying with the Sport Act and their Constitutions and Rules, especially on Discipline, an undertaking which appears to be treated with kid gloves by the Commission.
Ode to Bam-Voom-Chilly-Boy and his Bravura Warriors
When the victorious Brave Warriors entourage touched down at Hosea Kutako International Airport earlier this week – it was the same old faces but this time the smiles on the faces from the clearly exhausted playing personnel and technical staff brought joy and ecstasy to thousands of success-starving football fans locally.
The generally ill-prepared national team surprised all and sundry and made the doubting Thomasses, including the hard-to-please author of this Column, eat big chunks of humble pie when the side, heavily loaded with part-timers, earned one of the 16 places up for grabs in next year’s African Cup of Nations finals in Ghana.
Although the Warriors scored a memorable win over Ethiopia in their last qualifying berth, they needed a little bit of help from Libya to secure qualification after the Arabs forced the Democratic Republic of Congo to a 1-all stalemate – thus allowing Namibia to leapfrog the early pace-setters in a group that was wide open going into the final round.
Congratulations to Ben and his troops as well as my broertjie my brrra TY, but piles of hard work still lies ahead because our next target should be the knock-out stage when the continental showpiece gets underway, come next January.
Supersport Commentators Caught Offside
Whilst football fanatics are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of the popular English Premiership on the Telly – some of the pay channel analysts and commentators are just a bunch of moegoes masquerading as soccer gurus.
The so-called experts were extremely preoccupied by blind loyalty during last weekend’s live transmission of the South Africa/Zambia crucial African Nations Cup qualifier.
The poor guys were unaware of the “Head to Head” point system which is standard practice when teams finish equal on points in the qualifying rounds – viewers were fed with beef that Chipolopolo needed to win by a margin of more than 3 goals against an out-of-sorts Bafana Bafana outfit, ag sies tog!!
The Zambians scored 3 goals against South Africa’s 2 in the two-legged qualifier which automatically booked their flight to Ghana, while South Africa only sneaked in through the back door as one of the best 3 runners-up from the 12 group qualifiers.
For those who want to see the back of me, your wish is my command – so until next Friday, I’m signing off.