New Brave Warriors coach to be named tomorrow

THE Namibia Football Association (NFA) will announce tomorrow who will be the new coach of the Brave Warriors.

The Namibian Sport yesterday established that interviews would be held today, with the announcement expected to coincide with the launch of the NFA Cup final at the Windhoek Country Club tomorrow morning. The football governing body considered more than 30 applications and only shortlisted current Blue Waters mentor Shepherd Murape and Zambian-born coach Ben Bamfuchile.Bamfuchile, a former Zambian national team coach, arrived in the country at the weekend and is expected to go for the interview this morning along with Murape, who has been coaching Blue Waters for three seasons now.The coaching job has been vacant since April last year after Namibia was booted out of the Cosafa Castle Cup by Botswana in Windhoek.Current Chief Santos coach Max Johnson was in charge as caretaker coach at the time.At the moment, the provisional national team, which is known as the President’s XI, is led by a local coaches Brian Isaacs, Dawid Snewe and former Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Ronnie Kanalelo.A source confirmed to The Namibian Sport yesterday that the new coach was expected to take up his responsibilities as soon as possible, as the Government and the Namibia Football Consortium (NFC) had agreed to jointly pay his salary.The source said the NFA would also announce the new coach’s assistant at the Cup launch.The assistant coach is expected to be a local and Kanalelo has been strongly linked to the position.Former South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) coach for Orlando Pirates Kosta Papic, who was strongly linked to the Brave Warriors job, was dropped after he made an attempt to become the new Zambian coach late last week.The Zambian football authorities apparently snubbed Papic, saying that they had not invited him for an interview when he arrived in the country.Murape has already won the Namibian league title twice with Blue Waters and also had stints with several South African premiership sides before he came to Namibia.He also coached the Namibian national team in the early ’90s and is familiar with the local football setup.Bamfuchile, who is 45 this year, coached former South African premiership club Amazulu and recently relegated PSL team Bush Bucks in the late ’90s.He also led Zambian premiership club Red Devils to league honours in 1989.NFA secretary general Alpheus Gaweseb said he did not want to comment on the issue, but would make a formal announcement today.NFA spokesperson Beau Kauta was also not in a position to comment, as he was tied up in a meeting.The coach’s position was supposed to be filled earlier this year, but the NFA halted the process after they discovered that there was no money for paying the coach.Since the NFC did not make provision for the salary of any national team coach in their N$40 million five-year sponsorship deal with the NFA, the NFA authorities opted to seek funding from Government, their biggest financial source.Government annually gives just over N$3 million to football, but the money is largely used for the preparation of national teams for international competitions.Government in recent weeks held talks with the NFA on the salary of the coach and eventually committed itself to budget for the new post.It is not yet known how much the new coach will take home, but it has previously been estimated that he stands to receive between N$50 000 and N$70 000 a month.The NFC consists of Namibia Mobile Telecommunication (MTC), First National Bank (FNB) and Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL).The football governing body considered more than 30 applications and only shortlisted current Blue Waters mentor Shepherd Murape and Zambian-born coach Ben Bamfuchile.Bamfuchile, a former Zambian national team coach, arrived in the country at the weekend and is expected to go for the interview this morning along with Murape, who has been coaching Blue Waters for three seasons now.The coaching job has been vacant since April last year after Namibia was booted out of the Cosafa Castle Cup by Botswana in Windhoek.Current Chief Santos coach Max Johnson was in charge as caretaker coach at the time.At the moment, the provisional national team, which is known as the President’s XI, is led by a local coaches Brian Isaacs, Dawid Snewe and former Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Ronnie Kanalelo.A source confirmed to The Namibian Sport yesterday that the new coach was expected to take up his responsibilities as soon as possible, as the Government and the Namibia Football Consortium (NFC) had agreed to jointly pay his salary.The source said the NFA would also announce the new coach’s assistant at the Cup launch.The assistant coach is expected to be a local and Kanalelo has been strongly linked to the position.Former South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) coach for Orlando Pirates Kosta Papic, who was strongly linked to the Brave Warriors job, was dropped after he made an attempt to become the new Zambian coach late last week.The Zambian football authorities apparently snubbed Papic, saying that they had not invited him for an interview when he arrived in the country.Murape has already won the Namibian league title twice with Blue Waters and also had stints with several South African premiership sides before he came to Namibia.He also coached the Namibian national team in the early ’90s and is familiar with the local football setup.Bamfuchile, who is 45 this year, coached former South African premiership club Amazulu and recently relegated PSL team Bush Bucks in the late ’90s.He also led Zambian premiership club Red Devils to league honours in 1989.NFA secretary general Alpheus Gaweseb said he did not want to comment on the issue, but would make a formal announcement today.NFA spokesperson Beau Kauta was also not in a position to comment, as he was tied up in a meeting.The coach’s position was supposed to be filled earlier this year, but the NFA halted the process after they discovered that there was no money for paying the coach.Since the NFC did not make provision for the salary of any national team coach in their N$40 million five-year sponsorship deal with the NFA, the NFA authorities opted to seek funding from Government, their biggest financial source.Government annually gives just over N$3 million to football, but the money is largely used for the preparation of national teams for international competitions.Government in recent weeks held talks with the NFA on the salary of the coach and eventually committed itself to budget for the new post.It is not yet known how much the new coach will take home, but it has previously been estimated that he stands to receive between N$50 000 and N$70 000 a month.The NFC consists of Namibia Mobile Telecommunication (MTC), First National Bank (FNB) and Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL).