Carlos Kambaekwa
There is very little effective planning for progress in our football setup, as a result the most essential components of the football association’s togetherness are totally sidelined and have minimal say, if any, on what’s best and suitable for them.
While the burning issue of Club vs Country remains a bone of contention for all stakeholders globally, the Namibian Football Association would have none of it and has been transgressing FIFA regulations at will by twisting teams to release players for national duty while the domestic league is in full swing.
It should be clearly understood that footballers belong to clubs and have contractual obligations with their respective employers which must be respected at all times, but the current situation in Namibian football cannot be left unchallenged unless we are hell-bent on destroying our football.
Don’t get me wrong, yours truly obviously applauds the NFA’s desire and efforts to give the Brave Warriors as much game time as they can in preparation for the upcoming continental showpiece in Ghana next January.
However, we should not lose sight of the fact that the Warriors’ seemingly unplanned training programme is interfering with domestic league activities and the real victims are the Clubs and fans who are now subjected to watching mediocre players in action week in and week out with catastrophic results.
The likes of Civics, Orlando Pirates and Ramblers have invested heavily in the transfer market at the start of the new season, but the continued unavailability of their most valued players has certainly disrupted the early season rhythm and their indifferent performance in recent league outings is just confirmation of the above stated concerns.
The very same officials who always cry foul when Clubs refuse to grant permission to our foreign legion are now abusing their power with total disrespect towards their own subjects because these matches are not even on the prescribed FIFA calendar for International Friendlies.
It’s about time for the permanently bungling league officials to start lending an ear and pick up some tips about the finer points of the beautiful game from those in the know since most of them appear to have landed their slave by default or how does one explain the current imbalances in the scheduling of league assignments.
Whatever the mitigating circumstances, a team like Ramblers will be somehow well placed to win the elusive league title, because of the construction of their league activities since they will have very little traveling to do in the second round after having played the bulk of their first round matches away from home which could give them a slight advantage over other competitors.
Scheduling officers should take into consideration the vast number of representation from Windhoek, with no less than seven clubs from the capital – which means less travelling for the Windhoek-based clubs.
Imagine a situation where Pirates have to travel 500-kilometres down to Keetmanshoop for a crucial league decider against Fedics United while Ramblers takes a 5-minute stroll to SKW Stadium with the same intentions.
The league should be structured in such a way that the playing ground is leveled for all Clubs to equally stake a claim for the title, but yours truly is afraid the current exercise is open for unnecessary criticism.
Last weekend’s round four match between SKW and Eleven Arrows was supposed to have taken place at Walvis Bay but the tie was shifted to Windhoek, ostensibly on the request of both teams – this is a dangerous precedent and league officials should be wary of falling prey to such dodgy arrangements.
In the meantime, I just can’t resist a parting shot at our football fraternity because I’m having serious reservations with the casual approach by many of the game’s folklore regarding the Brave Warriors’ lukewarm performance in recent International Friendlies.
The Warriors suffered narrow defeats at the hands of Morocco and Saudi Arabia respectively, which could have rang worried bells ahead of our participation for Ghana, but the low score line appears to have given us false hopes that as long as we don’t get hammered by big margins everything is cool!
This will be Namibia’s second appearance at the continental showpiece and we certainly need to set up a target this time around of at least reaching the knock out stage of the 16-nation finals and anything less should be regarded as failure if we are to take our football to the next level. I rest my case!.