Media and football

WITH the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup coming to the southern Africa in 2010, it is set to give Namibian football an opportunity to realise how much football needs the media but also, how the media rely on football to provide stories.

If you are a football fan, supporter, player, administrator, coach or otherwise, you will agree with me that we would not know a lot about what is happening elsewhere in the world if the media were not there.
When I speak to people about Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal, people talk as if these are teams that are playing somewhere in Khomasdal or Independence Stadium.
People will even mention all the names of players from these teams, like they are their neighbours. But just ask someone to mention names of five of the best players of SKW, Ramblers, Civic, African Stars, Tigers or even Oshakati City, and you will be shocked to know that people don’t know them.
So who is at fault? The media or the teams?
In his foreword in the Fifa guideline on media organisations, the former Fifa Director of Communications, Markus Siegler, wrote: ‘What would football be without the media? Similarly, what would the media be without football? Football and the media are part and parcel of our day-to-day existence, but you cannot imagine one without the other.
They form a wonderful symbiosis, with each profiting from the existence of the other.’
I recently engaged both the Referees’ Education Officer and the NPL media officer in providing me with information on referees and players dating back to 2001, and unfortunately they could not. It is not because the information is not available.
But it has not been archived in such a way that it is easy to retrieve.
All I know is that if information was provided to the media on a regular basis, then it would be easy for one to develop a filing system where you keep all your press releases or communiqués to the media.
Teams and administrators should always try to stay one step ahead of the media as far as information dissemination is concerned. Check the Fifa website and there is always some news every day.
Check team websites and compare the differences.
I do not understand how the league in this country can be playing football for such a long time, and yet you cannot get any statistics about players, teams or even football administrators.
How many courses have been conducted in this country and who are the people who have attended the courses and where they are now and what has been their contribution to the game?
Kudos to journalists who try to dig up statistics or keep records on Namibian football, as the NFA, NPL, teams and administrators are failing to provide such information for the public to know.

* Mathew T Haikali is a FUTURO III regional instructor in Administration and Management in Football.