Doëseb admits shortcomings

NAMIBIA Premier League chairman Johnny Doëseb says the football body has its shortcomings just like any other organisation, but it intends to improve in the upcoming season.

In response to why the league had failed to deliver on promises made at the start of the recently concluded 2010/11 campaign, Doëseb told The Namibian Sport that the league was under-resourced thus could not meet all its objectives. A fluffed new ticketing system, botched TV deal and its inability to speedily resolve its disciplinary cases were but some of the more prominent flaws of the NPL last season. To add insult to injury, the league’s CEO, Mathew Haikali, was axed in April on suspicion of financial irregularity.Haikali has since launched an appeal but that process is far from being concluded. Doëseb also promised a new Cup competition for the league, however that too never materialised. ‘We had administrative challenges in terms of human capital,’ said Doëseb on Monday.’We have taken stock of what went wrong so that we can correct our mistakes. We are trying to build football in Namibia and we will make mistakes in the process. But just because we failed does not mean we must stop trying.’During the season-ending MTC Premiership awards, the ambitious football boss made further promises to enhance the game in the new season. He said the newly formed NFA Sponsorship Committee would see to it that football become more commercialised in the country.’The fact that there are no supporting structures in Namibian football will not attract the corporate sponsors,’ he said. ‘Local Authorities must come on board and helps us put up these structures and you will see that the the corporates will come on board. We must follow new trends and we must try to achieve the objectives which were not met before.’