Fix the fixtures

THIS week I made a phone call to the Namibia Premier League (NPL) office to request the remaining fixtures of three teams in the domestic league.

I was not looking for dates, times or venues because I knew I wouldn’t get it, but wanted to know which opponents each of these three teams face next in their remaining six matches. I did not get the information.
I was told to look at the NPL website and work out the fixtures myself in comparison to the matches that were played in the first round to date.
I was not very amused by that and for the sake of presenting facts to the readers, I started scrolling down the results lists of last year, that I keep, to check out the teams until I got all their outstanding fixtures to date.
Now that effort took me a whole 15 minutes and I was thinking to myself why does the NPL have no calendar or schedule on their website indicating which matches are left for each team.
I always tell my colleagues at the NPL office that I don’t go to their website because there is nothing on it. No offence, but it has no information on teams, league statistics, player profiles, reports or event basic stories about developments in the league and related issues. No offence, but it is true.
For the readers out there, we are given fixtures on a weekly basis by the NPL and we have no idea when which team is playing.
We sports journalists are fed up with Mr Tovey //Hoëbeb and his staff who issue these fixtures to us two days before each game. But I won’t blame Mr //Hoëbeb and his staff. I deal with them on a daily basis and they have been helpful in many other regards.
But come to think of it, there are people who are actually approving these fixtures to be issued in such a fashion and they are the Board of Governors.
The Board of Governors consists of the various team chairmen and they decide on the league calendar for the premiership and ultimately also decide on what dates the matches should be played.
If they do not approve the fixtures, the NPL office can therefore not give out the information for the public.
That is sad. Why? The fundamental problem is that there is no master calendar in place between the Namibia Football Association and the NPL.
League matches are postponed at will if there are international matches.
Teams decide to shelve their matches because their players are in the national teams and the league administrators cannot do anything because the same BoG members are the ones who own the teams and flout the rules. How do we want to professionalise the league if journalists, team managers or teams for that matter do not know who their next opponents are at least two weeks in advance?
I know Namibia Football Association (NFA) chief executive officer Barry Rukoro will hunt me down to put it to me that there is indeed a harmonious fixtures calendar for domestic league, our national teams and cup competitions. There is none, because I have never seen such a document since I started reporting on football in the year 2000.
For the next season, I hope that the honourable members of the BoG will take it upon themselves to approve complete seasonal league fixtures for us not to guess who is playing who and when. At least if I know that Stars are playing Tigers in their last match of the second round, that is good enough, never mind the time and venue, as we have a huge problem in that area.
I know it is a tricky thing this of drawing up fixtures, but with only 12 teams in the premiership under the wing of the NPL, it should not be an unachievable feat.
Of course the international Fifa friendly dates are put in place well ahead of time by the world football governing body, so the NFA can conform their domestic cup competition and international games in relation to that.
The NPL and the NFA can compare their dates for matches and decide on a unified, but comprehensive football calendar for Namibia to avoid the current fiasco. The current situation is a pain for clubs, journalist and the football lovers alike.
corry@namibian.com.na