Carlos Kambaekwa
One must commend the country’s football authorities for the snail’s pace at which they went about their business to find a replacement for the beleaguered former Brave Warriors coach, one Arie Schans.
There is an old saying that once bitten twice shy, but it seems this notion does not apply to football administrators at all.
The fashion in which the new Warriors coach Belgian Tom Saintfiet has been appointed raises serious eyebrows to say the least, as this once again bring us to the lingering question as to whether this relatively unknown Belgian has been accorded preferential treatment at the expense of other potential candidates or not.
Schans has hardly unpacked his bags in his native Netherlands and his successor is already being paraded as the “Real Messiah” to pick up the pieces after the Warriors’ disastrous campaign in the ongoing 2010 FIFA World Cup preliminaries.
Surely, in any decent structures there must be certain criteria for the recruitment process and to appoint and fire people in strategic positions at the drop of a hat invites serious debate over the competence of the top brass.
Was Saintfiet head-hunted or when did he apply for the position of national coach in such a short period of time and if some of the afore-posted questions are of any substance, who qualifies to identify the coach or have our football administrators now adopted the culture of applying their decisions on authority rather than expertise.
The Namibian Football Association has developed a habit of opening themselves to unnecessary criticism and until such time they start adopting a transparent channel of doing things – there will always be room for suspicion.
The NFA top hierarchy should stop taking football followers for a ride and come clean on issues of national interest. The poor performance of the Brave Warriors is a national concern and it’s not only the beat of the NFA alone not to treat this matter as if it does not warrant a certain measure of urgency.
For the sake of national interest, yours truly thought of not publishing some damaging revelations made by the clearly agitated Schans during a recent press conference where the sharp-tongued Dutchman openly criticized the casual approach of the NFA towards the development of football in this country.
Some of the remarks might have reached the long ears of his paymasters and one could tell that the brother has shot himself in the foot with some of his utterances, which did certainly not exactly go well down the throats of his masters.
What makes a mockery of the doings at Soccer House these days is the continued absence of office-bearers at press conferences, where several burning questions need answers from the Horses’ mouths.
Colourful Fans and Mediocre Football
I must doff my hat for the wonderful atmosphere and crowd behaviour during last weekend’s MTC NFA Cup final between Civics and African Stars at a half-packed Windhoek Independence Stadium.
But alas, did the thousands of fans who braved the chilly weather get value for their hard earned moolah – no! I don’t think so – the type of football dished out on the pitch was absolutely pathetic, so to speak, and the players made themselves guilty of hopelessly too many schoolboy errors.
Football is a brand and our players need to realize that mediocrity will keep the game’s fanatics away from the turnstiles.
Yours truly is yet to see a local team playing anywhere near the flowing passing game that was the trademark of Young Ones in the early eighties or players unleashing long range shots like Gerros “the Bomber” Uri-khob.
Our football lacks personalities in the mould of Samora Appolus, Elgin “Sputla” Masite, Alfred “Juku” Tjazuko. We need footballers with the knack of making opposing fans eat out of their hands.