Akan blasts Namibian football

Former Orlando Pirates chairman Ali Akan says the lack of sponsorship and government’s reluctance to invest heavily in sport is testimony that there is no bright future for the game.
Speaking to Sport Wrap, Akan is of the opinion that “Namibian football is dead” and nothing much is being done to appease the situation since government is also not coming to the party.
“Namibian football does not have a future. It is dead at the moment and I am saying this because of the lack of sponsors,” he said.
He pointed out that despite some people spending thousands into the game year in and out, “football is literally not a business in this country.”
“The thing is football is not a business in this country and some businesspeople try and come in investing money year in and out and some of them just pull out while others stay not because there is money in football but just because of the love of the game.
“They put in money every month but certain individuals just pocket that money and that is not good,” he said.
Akan added that the lack of football development is also threatening its future, as the game is not well nurtured at school level.
“We are not developing football at school level and even at premier league because we do not have youth academies from the premier league senior teams and it cannot go on like that if we want to take the game to the next level,” he lashed out.

Support local
Moreover, Akan also spoke out against Namibians who don’t support local leagues and who instead prefer to watch European football.
“Namibians are very proud but all of them are supporting European teams and it is so painful because if you go check on local sport pages on social media, people are busy discussing European leagues but we are still proud Namibians who are not supporting their own teams,” he said.
He further added that people love the game but they are not having enough local football games broadcast on national television and that is also a drawback for the game.
Akan suggested that at least N$1 million should be given to each premier league club at the beginning of each season for administration purposes.

Skills shortage
Meanwhile, FIFA Regional Instructor Mathew Haikali said there is currently a lack of marketing skills, and events management in Namibian football.
“Currently there is a lack of those skills or if they exist they are not utilised by football administrators and these could be our own downfall,” he said, adding that all those areas needed commitment from individual members to be able to take football to the next level.
He said participants from a coaching course held in Namibia that mapped out the Windhoek Declaration should implement what they learnt for the game to move forward.
“The participants agreed on the need to have development structures as feeder teams, to ensure the development of youth players for Namibian football, but unfortunately that was thrown out of the window, without consideration that there is a substantial opportunity for funding and resource mobilisation, when the youth and young people were involved in sporting activities,” he said.

Unpredictable
At the moment, the future for the Namibian Premier League is in doubt as the first tier football league is now operating without a major sponsor after the N$40 million sponsorship agreement with MTC ended recently.
It is also not known whether the Standard Bank Cup will take place this year, as it is played between the league winners and the NFA Cup winners.
The NFA Cup, which was sponsored by Bidvest Namibia in recent years, did not take place this season.
With the absence of the NFA Cup and the details not yet clear about the Standard Bank Cup, Namibian teams are only exposed to one cup competition (the Dr Hage Geingob Cup) which is played by two foreign teams and the NPL champions and another team that is determined by SMS votes.

KAINO NGHITONGO