What’s in it?

WHAT’S in it for presidents of sports bodies?

Is it the love for the sport, the money or to simply just command authority?
That is the question that I am asking Namibian sports leaders who still want to be in charge, despite either running the sports codes into the ground, or simply failing to lift them to greater heights.
A few years back, Namibia’s first Prime Minister and current Patron of the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Hage Geingob told me the following: ‘Power is sweet and once you are in there, it is not easy to let go.’
I think that statement has been proven time and again by many Namibian sports leaders, especially presidents of federations who repeatedly stand for re-election.
A classic case is the current debacle surrounding Athletics Namibia (AN) in which Alpha Kangueehi is insisting that he is the president of the body despite a deadlock in voting.
He has been serving for more than five years and wants another term. The question I posed to him earlier was why he was still pursuing that, and he simply replied: ‘The people want me there.’
But, if the people want a leader to be in the position, why can’t the leader oppose the move and simply step aside and give others a chance? Is it that other people cannot lead?
Is this ‘the people want me there’ notion just being used as a sort of a cover-up because of other agendas?
I pondered on the issue and concluded that it cannot be for the love of the sport, or money or the ‘people want me’.
I realised that most of these leaders do not love the sport wholeheartedly because many never played it before. Be it football, basketball, netball, athletics, cricket, volleyball. In fact, many of at least 50 codes we have in Namibia.
About 90 percent of the current presidents, secretary-generals, treasurers and members of the executive committees and so forth, never ever played at international level, let alone national level. Maybe at school level, but that is not recorded.
Now, why is there still such a huge interest in maintaining that power and not giving way for others to lead despite the power being sweet?
In fact, I will associate it being sweet with possibly the huge amounts of money that comes with it, but to tell you the truth, there is no money in Namibian sport.
Nothing substantive, maybe a little.
Why? Because Government or the politicians do not care about it due to their absolute lack of understanding on how big sport is worldwide, while the private sector is just too stingy and fail to realise how sport can make their brand names permanent in the minds of many in the long run.
Quick return on investment by many companies is the order in Namibia and unfortunately, it does not work like that by investing is sport.
The only logical conclusion that I could arrive at is that most of the leaders want to be in office because of the prestige and to be a well-known figure.
A well-known figure without a decent development programme for a code, losing national teams on most age group levels and the non-existence of properly administered national leagues is in my view, not a leader.
Point is, unless Namibian leaders in sport decide to share the power and realise that it is after all not as sweet as there is no money in it, the better it will be for the ones who love it and currently playing it, can make the change as soon as they take over.
A great need is also for the leaders to understand that power struggles not only dent their reputations, but it drags the sporting codes through the mud and after all, athletes are left to suffer.
For the ones currently serving, Namibian athletes and players are calling for you to exercise a more responsibility in putting them first, be more pro-active, show a greater sense of vision and lead without fear or favour.