COLLECT TOURNEY AN OPTION FOR LOCAL FOOTBALL?

Namibian football fans will no longer enjoy action from their favourite teams as the country’s flagship cup competition, the NFA Cup, has somewhat ceased to exist, with no other competitions in existence either.

This leaves no option but for a ‘collect’ tournament to be called to life. It works for the lower leagues and bush football, why not the premiership?

Since leo are no longer able to fund the NFA Cup, this leaves a void in the domestic game as teams will now only concentrate on the league.

Over the past few years, the Namibia Premier League (NPL) has been unable to secure funding for its own cup competitions and businesses have shown much apathy.

The absence of cup competitions takes away the extra income these teams can rake in for winning such titles, the flair of the game on that platform, bragging rights and big crowds, while it also robs players from maintaining high fitness levels. The football authorities also lose income through takings at the gate.

Someone has to take the flak. The poor ‘foresight’ was of course that the Namibia Football Association (NFA) had no back-up plan to sustain the future existence of the oldest cup competition in the country.

The fact that the NFA did not let the sponsors commit to a deal for a given period of time is one major mistake. This also applies to the NPL for sitting with no competition for its teams.

I firstly propose that both these bodies collectively source sponsorships, with the NFA assisting by exercising their influential arm as football bosses, while the NPL can use the teams as the marketers of the targeted sponsors to fund a competition.

Or, the teams could join hands and put into motion a tournament with each contributing a certain amount that will be up for grabs. A ‘collect’ tournament, if you want to put it that way.

Businesses now also have a chance to splash their capital and put up a cup competition - similar to the one Humphries Security Guard Division used to have - and put these teams into action to compete for a prize.

A country without a domestic cup competition is as good as a car with no engine. It is embarrassing, to say the least, and shows that authorities are too lax. League games are simply just not enough.

click to enlarge Corry Ihuhua