Sponsors scared to invest in Namibian football
Football a long way from starting
It seems unlikely that domestic football will start anytime soon in Namibia.
The Fifa Normalisation Committee (NC) issued a statement yesterday to inform the nation about the current status of the domestic football season.
The future looks bleak for a possible season, with sponsors scared to invest.
The NC, led by chairperson Bisey Uirab, has in the past indicated that they would have wished to start the football season in August or September this year, depending on the availability of funding.
However, the NC’s statement noted that after engaging various corporate companies and offering them well-packaged propositions of football products for potential sponsorship to assist the Namibia Football Association (NFA), it has become clear that some sponsors hold negative views of the image and brand of the NFA and Namibian football altogether.
Collective interest
The NC explained that efforts are ongoing and pose their own challenges.
"It is evident that all stakeholders of the football community need to not only place the collective interest of football at the heart of all activities, but additionally, and most importantly, need to focus on repairing the public perception of the damaged brand of the nation's most loved sport."
The NC further stated that they are committed to start the football season as soon as they secure sufficient funding.
"The general secretariat of the NFA is hard at work with behind-the-scenes preparations to smooth out the registration process of leagues, clubs and players and to finalise all administrative processes, systems and protocols that are required by the NFA statutes."
Promising initiatives
In addition, the committee said that they have observed promising initiatives taking place week after week in the community over the past few weeks during the pre-season competitions.
These included the recent Black Africa versus African Stars match, which pulled a large crowd in Windhoek at the Sam Nujoma Stadium, as well as the coastal match between Eleven Arrows and Blue Waters, and first division matches and social league games held over weekends to entice football lovers.
"The NFA supports these competitions and our message to the organisers is to keep up the good work of community football development."
Uirab added that training and development programmes for administration, referees and coaching courses are ongoing under the technical department of the NFA.
The future looks bleak for a possible season, with sponsors scared to invest.
The NC, led by chairperson Bisey Uirab, has in the past indicated that they would have wished to start the football season in August or September this year, depending on the availability of funding.
However, the NC’s statement noted that after engaging various corporate companies and offering them well-packaged propositions of football products for potential sponsorship to assist the Namibia Football Association (NFA), it has become clear that some sponsors hold negative views of the image and brand of the NFA and Namibian football altogether.
Collective interest
The NC explained that efforts are ongoing and pose their own challenges.
"It is evident that all stakeholders of the football community need to not only place the collective interest of football at the heart of all activities, but additionally, and most importantly, need to focus on repairing the public perception of the damaged brand of the nation's most loved sport."
The NC further stated that they are committed to start the football season as soon as they secure sufficient funding.
"The general secretariat of the NFA is hard at work with behind-the-scenes preparations to smooth out the registration process of leagues, clubs and players and to finalise all administrative processes, systems and protocols that are required by the NFA statutes."
Promising initiatives
In addition, the committee said that they have observed promising initiatives taking place week after week in the community over the past few weeks during the pre-season competitions.
These included the recent Black Africa versus African Stars match, which pulled a large crowd in Windhoek at the Sam Nujoma Stadium, as well as the coastal match between Eleven Arrows and Blue Waters, and first division matches and social league games held over weekends to entice football lovers.
"The NFA supports these competitions and our message to the organisers is to keep up the good work of community football development."
Uirab added that training and development programmes for administration, referees and coaching courses are ongoing under the technical department of the NFA.
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