So, its done and dusted! All the brouhaha of the African Stars saga is now in the dustbin of statistics, I guess!
Finally, Namibians can now heave a sigh of relief and look forward to a fitting welcome of an exciting football season, starting with the much-anticipated TN Mobile CAF Africa Women’s Championship to be hosted by the Namibia Football Association (NFA).
Its time now for all patriotic Namibians to put their differences aside and join hands to ensure the smooth hosting of the continental showpiece and show the skeptics that Namibians are capable and have the pedigree to organise such a major sporting event.
For the NFA to stage a successful tournament, all stakeholders must put their shoulder to the wheel if we are to douse realistic fears of empty stadiums. The successful hosting of this tourney is the gateway to other high profile international sporting events.
And while the volume of participation in local women’s football is quite pleasing and laudable – crowd attendance need to improve tremendously if we are to present a genuine spectacle and leave a long lasting impression on the visiting teams, foreign media and CFA officials.
In a nutshell, all organs of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) must go by the book if they are to gain ground on a flawless organisation while executing their designated functions in apple pie order.
These grand events only come once in a blue moon and must be appreciated and handled with the utmost competency and uncompromising gusto, so to speak.
Yours truly is cocksure the hierarchy of Namibian football has what it takes to deliver a spick and span tournament and one does not need to look too far from the hordes of development achieved by the association and the emergence of our women’s football team, the Brave Gladiators.
As much as one appreciates and would like to applaud the exploits of our national rugby teams both at senior and junior level, the usual lack of financial resources and lukewarm interest from the corporate business, whom yours truly is inclined to believe intentionally pulls the rug from under the feet of the financially crippled Rugby Union, through their constant reluctance to plough their profits back into the oval ball.
Is our rugby becoming a nine-day wonder ?
Namibia’s fifth qualification for the International Rugby Board (IRB) World Cup begs the question as to whether their effort is really worth the candle? The Welwitschias have defied all odds staked against them to earn a qualification berth in the IRB World Cup finals in England next year, while the national Under-19 rugby underlined their supremacy in continental rugby by returning the compliment to their seniors in familiar fashion to qualify for the Junior World Rugby Trophy. What remains now is for the local business moguls to invest in rugby. Don’t ask me who they are, the land of the brave is blessed with hopelessly too many to mention names.
For the umpteenth time, our amateurs will become the whipping boys of the global showpiece suffering embarrassing heavy defeats at the hands of world’s heavyweights, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Wales, Argentina, Ireland, France, Scotland and Fiji.
There is an urgent need to prepare adequately for IRB World Cup, but this can only be achieved through proper funding. Our teams need to compete against strong Provincial sides for South Africa on a regular basis to measure ourselves as to where we are.
We should not allow ourselves to get carried way and start believe we are giant-killers after wins against the game’s lightweights Kenya, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. I rest my case.