July 2001 Sport News Headlines

Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - Web posted at 12:59:49 GMT

Dumitru cost half a million
HELGE SCHUTZ

THE eight-month reign of Ted Dumitru as the national coach of the Brave Warriors cost the Namibia Football Association close to N$500 000, NFA president Petrus Damaseb revealed yesterday.

Speaking at the opening of a Confederation of African Football course for local coaches, Damaseb said the Dumitru case provided proof that foreign coaches did not provide a magic solution and that one first had to look at what was available locally.

"There is an erroneous public perception that foreign coaches are the solution to the problem. Dumitru's case, however, showed that he didn't produce magic results. He cost us close to N$500 000 and we could have used that money to develop our local talent," he said.

Following Namibia's final qualifying match of the year against Senegal on Saturday, Dumitru said that the NFA had not yet decided on a new coach for the Brave Warriors.

"We will work with our local coaches and reflect on the situation before we make a decision," he said.

Damaseb also denied that the NFA had offered the Brave Warriors' coaching job to Gordon Igesund, former coach of South African league champions Orlando Pirates, as reported in Kick Off magazine.

"We never contacted Igesund," he said.

In any case the South African media have reported that Igesund has joined Cape Town Premier League club Santos.

Damaseb said he was disappointed with Namibia's performance against Senegal, but that it was not the time for recriminations and that they had to learn from these lessons to build for the future.

He also called on the Namibian public to support the Brave Warriors more.

"As a nation we must support our team and it is most unfortunate that they have been abandoned. There were only about 300 spectators at Saturday's match and then they expect the team to produce miracles," he said.

Regarding the future, Damaseb said the NFA would start preparing for the Brave Warriors' participation in next year's Cosafa Cup competition.

"We will start rebuilding the team and try and organise some friendly matches," he said.

The high-level CAF coaching course is being presented by former Ghanaian national coach, Charles Gyamfi.

Gyamfi has won several Ghanaian and international football awards and also became the first coach to win the African Cup of Nations title on three occasions with Ghana.

In 1990 he was awarded a silver medal of merit by CAF for his contribution to football in Africa.

In 1995 he was appointed as a Fifa instructor and in 1998 he was appointed as a member of the technical committee of Fifa.

About 20 Namibian coaches are attending the week long course including current Brave Warriors coach Smithley Engelbrecht, former national coach Lucky Richter and his assistant Herman Katjiuongua.

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