The minister of sport, youth and national service, Agnes Tjongarero, says the ministry is yet to receive a budget request from the national football body.
Namibia’s Brave Warriors have qualified for the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) final to be hosted by the Ivory Coast in January next year.
The Namibian government, through the sport ministry, allocated N$16 million towards the national rugby team’s participation at this year’s Rugby World Cup held in France, but the same cannot be said about the Namibia Football Association (NFA), as no budget has been submitted to the sport ministry.
Talking to Desert Radio recently, Tjongarero said: “We have not received any budget request from the NFA. If we do not receive . . . the budget cycle is now closed for next year. Nothing was submitted from the NFA.”
She said: “Maybe the NFA is getting more money from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the International Federation of Football Associations (Fifa).
“. . . at the moment we are just stretching here and there, without a proper budget that we have received.
“That is the problem we are having, however, we are trying to see how we can narrow that gap so that the NFA, which is responsible for football in this country, can also come up and say this is their budget for A, B and C programmes.”
Should the NFA submit a budget request for the Afcon showdown, the ministry would take the request to the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises and say that is what is needed, she said.
“When one budgets, you cannot just say give me N$10 000 for women’s football, N$12 000 for the under-17s and so forth, you have to submit an overall budget,” Tjongarero said.
“All of us know by now that the senior national team’s home matches are played outside of Namibia, and those expenses must be reflected in the budget. But sadly the budget cycle is over for next year,” she said.
The minister said though they have not yet received any request from the football association the doors are not wholly shut, adding that perhaps the NFA itself would knock on the doors of the private sector.
NFA acting secretary general Jochen Traut says he, together with Fifa’s normalisation committee, have presented a N$40-million budget to the ministry’s executive director for consideration.
“Yes, we have submitted a proposed budget and received some feedback to that effect,” he says.
Traut can, however, not disclose how much the ministry is willing to commit to the national team’s Afcon preparation and overall participation next year.
Namibia has made three appearances at the Afcon finals, exiting in the group stages of all three competitions.
Next year’s spectacle will see Namibia opening their campaign against group favourites Tunisia on 16 January, then taking on South Africa on 21 January, and concluding their group stage campaign against west African giants, Mali, on 24 January.
As for the Mobile Telecommunications Company knockout project initiative into which the national mobile operator injected a cool N$2,4 million towards the Brave Warriors’ Afcon preparation, Tjongarero welcomed the initiative.
She urged the public and private sectors to come on board and financially assist the Brave Warriors.
