From the side line

THE football season in Namibia is set to finally start tomorrow, but is all really well in the game? Judging from the recent fiasco between the Namibia Football Association and the Central West First Division (CWFD) as well as the case of Life Fighters, which keeps on popping up among the football officials, it is not the case.

In fact, the story of the CWFD is a sad one, judging from the fact that the concerned teams were not consulted by the football authorities on the proposed new structure. In Namibian football everything is possible.NFA officials are insisting that they consulted widely and got approval to proceed with the implementation of both the new Southern and Northern Stream First Leagues.But the team officials say they have never had meetings with the NFA officials and also demanded for minutes of those meetings.The NFA can also not provide the minutes of the meetings to the media.Now who is right and who not telling the truth.In fact, there is no proof that the teams were consulted and there is also no proof that they never heard from the NFA.None of these parties have been honest to each other, but somewhere there is something really wrong.One wonders if the NFA has looked at all pros and cons before transforming the league into a different entity.For example in the Southern Stream First League, a team such as Blue Boys, which played in the former CWFD, will be travelling from Swakopmund to Luederitz to play a one-off match.Costly as it is, the same team will then be required to travel to Windhoek or Keetmanshoop one or two weekends later.But now, the start-up capital for these teams, although not determined at this stage, cannot cover all their matches per season.The prize money they receive at the end of each season is also nothing compared to their travel and accommodation expenses throughout the season.The former league, according to the NFA, also had too many teams and they wanted to streamline it to only 12 teams, which in principle is a good idea, but is it viable for the teams that will play in it? I think consultations were supposed to be extensive enough to address the possibly hiccups before forming that league.Of course the NFA argues that there will be other advantages, but at this point, the negative points outweigh the positive.In fact, NFA president Petrus Damaseb and his executive committee decided that new first-division leagues for both the north and the south be formed to have better control, reduce the bureaucratic systems and curb the infighting that is the order of the day in Namibian football.Sometimes it is better to draw a line in the case of the NFA, because it is not possible to please everyone.But the bottom line is that consultations were important in this regard as the decisions taken by the NFA executive affect the clubs that have the potential players who can turn out for the national teams one day.On the other hand, teams should have sought an audience with the NFA after they first picked up the story for the new streams.Sometimes club officials are ignorant and always blame the system for their incompetence.This is not a strange scenario in Namibian football, because I came across some officials who were still trying to register their players on the final day of the window period.On the Life Fighters issue, I understand that the team has now gone to the Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) through the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to register their case.The case stems from an arbitration case that was ruled in their favour as points were unfairly given to Tigers during a match that never took place at Otjiwarongo.Life Fighters were given a lifeline chance to play in a first round of playoffs for the premiership.The team was technically relegated, but they threw away their chance of participating in the playoffs, which ultimately cost them a place in the premiership.The case they are fighting is only known to them because the decision of the arbitrator was binding.Some of these cases reflect badly on Namibian football in general, but for now, we are looking forward to exciting football and, most importantly, plenty of fabulous goals in the new season.In Namibian football everything is possible.NFA officials are insisting that they consulted widely and got approval to proceed with the implementation of both the new Southern and Northern Stream First Leagues.But the team officials say they have never had meetings with the NFA officials and also demanded for minutes of those meetings.The NFA can also not provide the minutes of the meetings to the media.Now who is right and who not telling the truth.In fact, there is no proof that the teams were consulted and there is also no proof that they never heard from the NFA.None of these parties have been honest to each other, but somewhere there is something really wrong.One wonders if the NFA has looked at all pros and cons before transforming the league into a different entity.For example in the Southern Stream First League, a team such as Blue Boys, which played in the former CWFD, will be travelling from Swakopmund to Luederitz to play a one-off match.Costly as it is, the same team will then be required to travel to Windhoek or Keetmanshoop one or two weekends later.But now, the start-up capital for these teams, although not determined at this stage, cannot cover all their matches per season.The prize money they receive at the end of each season is also nothing compared to their travel and accommodation expenses throughout the season.The former league, according to the NFA, also had too many teams and they wanted to streamline it to only 12 teams, which in principle is a good idea, but is it viable for the teams that will play in it? I think consultations were supposed to be extensive enough to address the possibly hiccups before forming that league.Of course the NFA argues that there will be other advantages, but at this point, the negative points outweigh the positive.In fact, NFA president Petrus Damaseb and his executive committee decided that new first-division leagues for both the north and the south be formed to have better control, reduce the bureaucratic systems and curb the infighting that is the order of the day in Namibian football.Sometimes it is better to draw a line in the case of the NFA, because it is not possible to please everyone.But the bottom line is that consultations were important in this regard as the decisions taken by the NFA executive affect the clubs that have the potential players who can turn out for the national teams one day.On the other hand, teams should have sought an audience with the NFA after they first picked up the story for the new streams.Sometimes club officials are ignorant and always blame the system for their incompetence.This is not a strange scenario in Namibian football, because I came across some officials who were still trying to register their players on the final day of the window period.On the Life Fighters issue, I understand that the team has now gone to the Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) through the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to register their case.The case stems from an arbitration case that was ruled in their favour as points were unfairly given to Tigers during a match that never took place at Otjiwarongo.Life Fighters were given a lifeline chance to play in a first round of playoffs for the premiership.The team was technically relegated, but they threw away their chance of participating in the playoffs, which ultimately cost them a place in the premiership.The case they are fighting is only known to them because the decision of the arbitrator was binding.Some of these cases reflect badly on Namibian football in general, but for now, we are looking forward to exciting football and, most importantly, plenty of fabulous goals in the new season.