NPL races against time to finish

THE Namibia Premier League (NPL) has haphazardly rearranged matches in anticipation of ending the season by June 20.

Eleven Arrows and African Stars will clash at the Kuisebmond Stadium in Walvis Bay this Sunday, a day after Namibia’s international friendly against the Democratic Republic of Congo in Windhoek.
The NPL match was postponed earlier because both sides had players in the senior national team, which played in several friendly matches since March.
The match will be played at 14h00 and will be the one of the only two matches on the day.
Chief Santos will host SKW at the Oscar Norich Stadium at the same time, before matches will resume on June 10.
NPL spokeswoman Meke Namindo says they want to speed up by accommodating all the matches ahead of the June 20 deadline.
‘We also have a problem with venues, so we want to accommodate teams at venues that are available and we also made adjustments to kick-off times, in a bid to have a smooth-ending season,’ she said.
She said the times may change, but the ones that appear in the current fixtures list were approved by the Board of Governors (BoG).
LATE KICK-OFFS
According to the fixtures released by Namindo, Ramblers will play a match at 20h00 against Tigers at the Khomasdal Stadium on a Wednesday (June 10), while in a late match at 20h00, Orlando Pirates meet African Stars at the Independence Stadium on the same day.
Strangely, Stars will only play again on Sunday (June 14), while Arrows, which also plays on Wednesday (June 10) against Hotspurs in Windhoek, will be required to host Tigers on Saturday at Walvis Bay.
This means that Stars will have three days to rest, compared to Arrows which will only have two days and a distance of over 300 kilometres to cover, to be ready for their next match. That also goes for Ramblers, Tigers and Pirates.
Oshakati City will play tough back-to-back encounters on June 13 and 14 against Ramblers and African Stars, an arrangement that has been made for them to kill two birds with one stone.
The match between SKW and Civics at the SKW Stadium is also scheduled for 20h00 on a Thursday (June 11).
Black Africa will only play on June 13 against Pirates and again on June 20 against Oshakati City, meaning they together with Hotspurs and Mighty Gunners will have the longest break of all the teams.
All the matches on June 20 are scheduled for 15h00.
When the league ends on June 20, Arrows and Orlando Pirates will play in the final of the Cell One NFA Cup on June 27.