There's obviously a lot of politics involved.

But what I am sure about is that it has cost quite a lot of money for us to get this far, although it would have set us back many millions more had we reached even the shortlist, let alone been named eventually as the host of the tournament.

THAT is now all academic of course.

We didn't make the shortlist, and despite our intention to appeal the decision, I doubt that things will change to the extent that we will finally emerge victorious.

There are various schools of thought on this issue.

Some (and I probably include myself in this camp) believe that the whole exercise would have been too costly for the country to afford, and that there are burning priorities more urgent than this one.

Others feel that the large cost would have been quite secondary compared to what it would have brought Namibia in terms of revenue had the Cup of Nations been held here.

A third school of thought doesn't have strong feelings either way, but is of the opinion that those engaged in the bid on our behalf just didn't do their homework properly.

I think that the huge financial outlay would have resulted in 'white elephants' namely huge stadiums which could thereafter never be fully utilised by a country with a population as small as ours.

Yes, there would have been an influx of people, and obviously money, over the period of time during which the competition would be held, but I'm not sure that this would have covered our costs.

The Municipality of Windhoek alone was being asked to cough up in the region of N$60 million, and one has to ask oneself where this money would have come from.

Others emphasise the prestige which would come from hosting a tournament such as this, and maintain that the expenditure, however high, to upgrade various stadiums and accommodation establishments and whatever else would be required to deal with a huge influx of people, would have been well worth it.

They argue that the economy would have benefited enormously.

Namibian top Government and sporting officials who travelled to Cairo, Egypt, to present the bid, are expressing shock at what they perceive to be a snub for this country.

They cite alleged 'irregularities' which resulted in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decision to shortlist Angola, Libya, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea/Gabon and to eliminate Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and are demanding answers as to why these bids were rejected.

Perhaps we'll know more when explanations to this effect are given.

Some Namibians, however, question even the composition of the group that travelled to Egypt, asking why it should have been headed by former President Sam Nujoma and other top politicians, with sportspeople somewhat secondary to the whole process.

I guess I have some understanding as to why politicians were involved, possibly in an attempt to 'impress' with the high level of participation and support for our bid, but nevertheless in itself, this must have cost a great deal of money.

Others say that the lobbying for Namibia's bid was too little and too late, and everything done at the last minute rather too hastily to expect any significant success.

I'm not entirely sure what the eventual shortlisted countries did that we didn't, and perhaps there is even merit in accusations by our Government team of bias and preference towards certain bidders.

But if it is so that the whole process was decided upon even before the bid presentations were made, then we have wasted a whole lot of time and money in travelling there at all.

Perhaps Namibia did not do enough homework, and perhaps, if a bid had to be made at all, we should have followed the example of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in putting in a joint bid with one of our neighbours.

To bring closure to the whole affair, it would certainly be of interest to most Namibians to get the reasons from CAF as to why we were excluded.

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