THE Namibia Football Association on Monday announced that the new football season will start on 17 April and end on 31 July.
NFA secretary general Franco Cosmos said that information regarding the registration of players will be communicated soon, and called on club chairpersons to get logistical arrangements in place, like organising training fields, determining home game fields, negotiating and signing players’ contracts, and buying the necessary training equipment to be ready for the new season.
According to Cosmos, the transfer fee payable between clubs to clear players will be referred to the executive committee for approval on 26 and 27 March, while the disbursement of funds to help clubs with preseason preparations such as the booking of stadiums for training, and buying training equipment will follow in due course.
The football season will comprise of the Namibia Premier Football League (NPFL), the three First Division Streams, the regional Second Division Leagues and the Women’s Super League.
The MTC Cup will start with the preliminary rounds for the three first division streams and the regional second division league. The preliminary rounds will determine the qualifiers for the for the knockout round of the competition proper consisting of 32 teams, made up of the 14 regions, 6 of the nationwide first divisions (2 of each stream) and the 12 NPFL clubs, which needed to resign from the expelled Namibia Premier League.
According to Cosmos the 12 clubs are Black Africa, Blue Waters, Citizens, Civics, Eleven Arrows, Julinho Sporting, Mighty Gunners, Orlando Pirates, Tigers, Tura Magic, Young African and Young Brazilians.
“The final dates of the MTC NFA Cup will be communicated once confirmed with the sponsor,” he added.
The leagues and the MTC NFA Cup will be played back to back while the football season will be concluded with the MTC NFA Cup final on 31 July 2021.
“This will give the NFA ample time to prepare for the kickoff of the 2021/22 football season starting in September 2021, and ending in May 2022, to align our football season in accordance with that of our mother-body, Fifa,”he added.
Cosmos said that the u20 regional tournament, the Namibian Newspaper Cup had been postponed, but that the sponsors The Namibian and Standard Bank Namibia had reconfirmed their support for the competition.
“This competition was traditionally held over the Easter weekend, attracting thousands of football lovers. However, due to unforeseen circumstances mainly caused by Covid-19, the NFA and its sponsors mutually agreed to find another suitable date during the August 2021 holidays to stage the Newspaper Cup. The competition may return to its traditional slot of the Easter long weekend in 2022, but only time will tell,” he said.
Cosmos said that the NFA Women’s Super Cup had just been concluded and that the women’s desk was in the process of developing a five year plan to develop, promote and establish regional structures to take Namibian women’s football to greater heights.
The Namibia Referees Association had initiated a recruitment campaign for new entrants during November 2019 while various training workshops for beginners had been conducted throughout Namibia’s 14 regions.
He added that no spectators will be allowed in football stadiums due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while further enquiries can be directed to the league coordinator Mabos Vries at mabosv62@gmail.com
