DECEMBER 2000 SPORT HEADLINES

Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - Web posted at 9:58:54 AM GMT

Touch & Go through to Premier League
HELGE SCHUTZ

A historic 2-0 victory against Benfica in Tsumeb on Sunday enabled Touch & Go to become the first team from Otavi to be promoted to the Windhoek Lager Premier League.

Touch & Go seemed to have thrown away their chance of automatic qualification to the Premier League when Benfica held them to a 1-all draw in Otavi on Saturday in the first leg of the Far North play-off matches.

But the players and their executive committee were determined to qualify automatically and a pep talk on Saturday night did the trick."

"After we could only draw our home match, the committee and the players came together to analyse the match.

We identified all the problems and told the players that Sunday's match would be our last chance to qualify for the Premier League," said Immanuel Kaundje, the public relations officer of Touch & Go.

On Sunday the players rose to the occasion as Percy "Samora" Khairabeb opened the scoring with a superb individual goal in the first half.

Their left wing, popularly known as "Rise" sealed Benfica's fate with a second-half goal to send their small band of spectators into raptures in the stands."

"We didn't have many fans in Tsumeb, but when the team returned to Otavi, the celebrations really took off.

A huge throng of people followed the team bus through the streets and eventually they all got together to congratulate the players," Kaundje said.

According to Kaundje, most of Touch & Go's players are still very young and he believes there is a great future for the current squad."

"Some of our oustanding players include goalkeeper Elton Gamgabeb; Stephanus 'Thabo' Hoaeb and Robert Gurirab, who are both very versatile and defender Ruben Ruiter.

Touch & Go will now join the other zonal first division winners - Ramblers from Central West, Bee Bob Brothers from the South and United Stars from the North East - as automatic qualifiers for this season's Windhoek Lager Premier League.

Benfica will now join Eleven Arrows and the other second-placed teams of the zonal first divisions - Firestone, Friends and Katima Wanderers - in promotion-relegation matches to determine this season's final Premier League team, in Windhoek on January 27 and 28.

The Namibia Football Association's Barry Rukoro said that the matches will be played on a round robin basis at venues which still have to be finalised.

Meanwhile, Nampa reports that KK Palace has decided to challenge the NFA in court after the latter nullified the original Far North play-offs which KK Palace won, because the wrong format was used.

The club's spokesperson Moses Ndaoya said that the NFA decided to nullify the play-offs after hearing the case of Benfica FC which was made through a protest, but they did not give KK Palace a chance to present their side of the story.

KK Palace maintains that they won last month's mini-league play-offs, making them the legitimate side to step into the elite league of the country."

"We fail to understand why the mini-league play-offs were nullified after the wrong format was apparently used.

Why is the same format that was used in Rundu not nullified?

" Ndaoya wanted to know.

Ndaoya said that the blame should be put on the Far North Zonal First Division who decided on the mini-league format, and not KK Palace.

He added that KK Palace wanted to know why they were not part of the meeting which decided to nullify their win.

Bafana team to play Burkina FasoJOHANNESBUG - The South African Football Association on Friday announced a Bafana Bafana squad to play Burkina Faso in the World Cup qualifier at Rustenburg next Saturday.

The team is:Goalkeepers: Andre Arendse (Santos), John Tlale (Sundowns) and Brian Baloyi (Kaizer Chiefs).

Defenders: Frank Schoeman (Lyngby), Pierre Issa (Olympique Marseille), Bradley Carnell (Stuttgart), Lucas Radebe (Leeds United), Aaron Mokoena (Ajax Amsterdam), David Kannemeyer (Ajax Cape Town) and Cyril Nzama (Kaizer Chiefs).

Midfielders: Dumisa Ngobe (Ankaragucu), Sibusiso Zuma (Copenhagen), Godfrey Sapula (Orlando Pirates), Delron Buckley (Bochum) and Tebogo Mokoena (Jomo Cosmos).

Strikers: Bradley August (Lyngby), Shaun Bartlett (Charlton Athletic), Siyabonga Nomvete (Kaizer Chiefs), Phil Masinga (Bari), Benedict McCarthy (Celta Vigo).

Special call-up: Helman Mkhalele - Nampa-Sapa

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