More than 10 000 young people in third division – Hamata 

The newly-established regional third division has enlisted close to 10 200 young people plying their trade in the division, which has been introduced countrywide, says Namibia Football Association (NFA) spokesperson Isack Hamata.

Talking to Desert FM recently, Hamata said the regional third division leagues across the country has 29 streams.

“If you have one third division, let’s say in the Hardap, Ohangwena or Omaheke region, you have two or three streams in those regions and you can double the number of streams in each region, you would have a clear understanding of how many players are roped in.

“One of the impacts of the now fully functional NFA regional third division leagues is that it keeps young people away from their obsession of simply playing with PlayStations, instead of taking part in formal structured football leagues,” Hamata said.

“We thank our sponsor, the Namibian Ports Authority (Namport), which has assisted us to have the regional third division up and running,” he said.

Hamata said Namport also sponsors the second division leagues, including the regional women’s football league countrywide.

“It’s a massive boost for us to be able to have football played in an organised fashion, thanks to Namport.

“Had those streams not been created, where would those footballers be?” he asked.

“It means they were either going to play ‘bush football’ – unrecognised, therefore denying them the chance to play formal football and to be in the running for whatever national or regional team age group.”

Hamata referred to the Nedbank Namibian Newspaper Cup requiring that participants play for an NFA-recognised structure to be selected for a regional or national team.

“These players have an opportunity to play organised football which puts them in contention for selection in the national and regional teams,” he said.

“Football being the leading sport code obviously has the biggest number of people who desire to play organised football. After much contemplation and much deliberations, soul searching and consultations, including constant streams of requests to be part of organised football, we decided to have formal regional football leagues.

“Where you look at the limited amount of opportunities that young people have to play football, it was then decided to establish third-division streams in each of the regions so we can have our young people play formalised football,” he said.

Hamata said many young Namibians play football, but not all have the same level of talent.

He said the third division was established to ensure that young people play football continuously, “because it is only by playing a lot of football that they are able to sharpen their skills and coaches are able to see which of the players are able to be put in pools”.

Hamata said by introducing regional leagues, players would be provided a proper foundation for progress.

He said through the the third divisions and women’s regional leagues, the NFA can track down players through its records and fight off age-cheating in the process.

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