We aim to avoid relegation - Hindjou
The Okahandja municipality is the new owners of the Okahandja United Football Club, previously known as Military School Okahandja, who will now compete in the Namibia Premier League (NPL).
They won promotion from the North West First Division (NWFD) after beating Oshakati's African Motto Football Club in a two-leg playoff 1-0 recently.
They were, however, initially not promoted as this would have meant there would be two Namibian Defence Force (NDF) teams in the NPL, with the other being Mighty Gunners.
According to NFA statutes, no natural or legal person, including holding companies and subsidiaries, may exercise control over more than one club or group in the league.
After handing over their NPL status to the community of Okahandja, mayor and former Brave Warriors player Congo Hindjou said their goal is to compete in the league and avoid relegation at the end of the season.
“We don't want to be a yoyo team, who comes into the premier league and is then relegated the following season.
“We will assemble a team of people whom we know have the expertise and knowledge to run a team and help us in avoiding relegation,” he said.
Hindjou added the town has individuals who own businesses and they will be roped in to help support the team to achieve their goal.
“We are going to hire a coach who has already been tested in the premier league and he will also have to recruit players who have been in the elite league and understand how things work, because we want to avoid relegation in our maiden season,” Hindjou said.
NFA secretary-general Barry Rukoro said as far as the NFA is concerned, no money was involved in the name and ownership change.
Rukoro added the association is currently putting in place measures that will see clubs owned by a single entity or institution being slowly phased out from the NFA structures, as per Fifa's request.
“This law caught us in a situation where we had an overwhelming number of military and police teams in our structures. We cannot wake up one morning and say Fifa says no ownership of more than one club by one entity, so goodbye; we need to find a formula to deal with this,” he explained.
This formula, he said, will help the NFA remain with a minimum number of manageable teams from such entities.
He said the NFA is also looking at dealing with such cases in cup competitions, as they do not want to find themselves in a similar situation.
NAMPA
They won promotion from the North West First Division (NWFD) after beating Oshakati's African Motto Football Club in a two-leg playoff 1-0 recently.
They were, however, initially not promoted as this would have meant there would be two Namibian Defence Force (NDF) teams in the NPL, with the other being Mighty Gunners.
According to NFA statutes, no natural or legal person, including holding companies and subsidiaries, may exercise control over more than one club or group in the league.
After handing over their NPL status to the community of Okahandja, mayor and former Brave Warriors player Congo Hindjou said their goal is to compete in the league and avoid relegation at the end of the season.
“We don't want to be a yoyo team, who comes into the premier league and is then relegated the following season.
“We will assemble a team of people whom we know have the expertise and knowledge to run a team and help us in avoiding relegation,” he said.
Hindjou added the town has individuals who own businesses and they will be roped in to help support the team to achieve their goal.
“We are going to hire a coach who has already been tested in the premier league and he will also have to recruit players who have been in the elite league and understand how things work, because we want to avoid relegation in our maiden season,” Hindjou said.
NFA secretary-general Barry Rukoro said as far as the NFA is concerned, no money was involved in the name and ownership change.
Rukoro added the association is currently putting in place measures that will see clubs owned by a single entity or institution being slowly phased out from the NFA structures, as per Fifa's request.
“This law caught us in a situation where we had an overwhelming number of military and police teams in our structures. We cannot wake up one morning and say Fifa says no ownership of more than one club by one entity, so goodbye; we need to find a formula to deal with this,” he explained.
This formula, he said, will help the NFA remain with a minimum number of manageable teams from such entities.
He said the NFA is also looking at dealing with such cases in cup competitions, as they do not want to find themselves in a similar situation.
NAMPA
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