NFA hosts indaba to chart way forward

THE Namibia Football Association hosted a Soccer Indaba last week aimed at addressing future strategies of the soccer body.

The Soccer Indaba brought together a diverse group of people consisting of technical experts, administrators, business experts and soccer enthusiasts. The main challenge facing the NFA is performance of the national soccer team, the Brave Warriors.Most of the people who attended the gathering agreed that youth development was a must in order to build a solid base for the Brave Warriors and that no short cuts should be taken in this regard.It meeting also noted that since South Africa was hosting the World Cup there had been mounting pressure from the public that Namibia qualifies to participate in this event.Because of this expectation the NFA has embarked upon a youth development project which has been dubbed the Soccer Project 2008.This project initiates a preparation programme which will take place over the next four years.This will specifically be for national youth teams in Namibia to prepare them for the 2008 All Africa and Olympic games qualifying matches.The NFA also said that it envisaged preparing a team to take part in the qualifying matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the team would be selected from those players participating in the project.The primary objectives of the project are the mobilisation of the initial training group, a nation-wide tour for selection of a team which will include a fundraising effort and an international camp.The main challenge facing the NFA is performance of the national soccer team, the Brave Warriors.Most of the people who attended the gathering agreed that youth development was a must in order to build a solid base for the Brave Warriors and that no short cuts should be taken in this regard.It meeting also noted that since South Africa was hosting the World Cup there had been mounting pressure from the public that Namibia qualifies to participate in this event.Because of this expectation the NFA has embarked upon a youth development project which has been dubbed the Soccer Project 2008.This project initiates a preparation programme which will take place over the next four years.This will specifically be for national youth teams in Namibia to prepare them for the 2008 All Africa and Olympic games qualifying matches.The NFA also said that it envisaged preparing a team to take part in the qualifying matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the team would be selected from those players participating in the project.The primary objectives of the project are the mobilisation of the initial training group, a nation-wide tour for selection of a team which will include a fundraising effort and an international camp.