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NFA says youth football key to growth

ENRICHING … Hosting regular tournaments, like the recent HopHydro Cup Namibia held in Windhoek, will greatly benefit the country’s young talent. Photo: Contributed

More youth football development tournaments, especially those that provide international exposure, are the key to the country’s future football prospects, says Namibia Football Association (NFA) spokesperson Isack Hamata.

In an exclusive interview with Desert FM, Hamata highlighted the recent HopHydro Cup for under-18s as an example, saying more of the same are needed to accelerate the growth of football in Namibia.

“The tournament was an eye-opener, as are many others we have seen elsewhere. We can learn from those visitors who do better than us [in football],” he said.

“The importance of such tournaments cannot be overemphasised. Every month and everywhere in Namibia we must have such tournaments, with an international twist,” Hamata said.

“The //Kharas region borders the Northern Cape. Can we not have provincial teams from there, Botswana, Eswatini and have a four-nations tournament?”

Similarly, the northern regions border Angola and Zambia, with Zimbabwe also a stone’s throw away.

An arrangement of that nature “could be ironed out for the above areas”, Hamata said.

This concept yielded the first Brave Warriors to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in 1998, he said.

“If we can have such tournaments every month, just like the under-20 national team in 1990 travelled to Westphalia [Germany]. They went on to compete in the Cosafa Cup and qualified for the Afcon finals in Burkina Faso.”

Hamata said the national football regulator welcomes initiatives such as the HopHydro Cup, which is the brainchild of Brave Warriors head coach Collin Benjamin, who also founded the MTC Hospol Youth Soccer League.

“The NFA does not have resources, and we have many competing interests. Our biggest benefactor is the government, and for the private sector coming on, especially for football, youth development is appreciated and acknowledged,” he said.

“The government, through the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service, puts in a lot – especially when they provide transportation and accommodation during the annual Nedbank Namibian Newspaper Cup,” Hamata explained.

“We have learnt from the HopHydro Cup that took place over three days. There is a lot for Namibia to learn. The talent we have in this country is abundant.

“It is how we package the talent that matters. How we develop our players to fit our conditions and our strength is so important,” he said.

The football association’s spokesperson urged football officials, technical and administrative, to learn from their peers.

This professional approach will lay a solid foundation from which Namibia can build, he said.

“I will not stop talking about why it was important for us to have had this tournament.

“Gone are the days when we say we do not have money. For us to compete, we need to have those types of arrangements.”

Hamata said the visitors were meticulous and well organised in every aspect of the game on and off the pitch.

“I can tell you, look at what the visitors were doing differently from us. When Sundowns were warming up, and they were just under-18 guys, the goalkeepers were with the goalkeepers’ coaches, and the strikers were with the strikers’ coaches,” he said.

“Our boys were warming up on their own and they only had a coach and his assistant coach.

“Hosting such developmental youth tournaments, especially with an international element to it, and when you have an opportunity to compete against somebody from another country.

“You must look at what it is they are doing differently from you.”

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