Football city falls apart

JESSE JACKSON KAURAISAWINDHOEK Namibia has struggled to service and maintain its infrastructure despite the millions the country makes from taxpayers and other natural resources.This has resulted in the country's football national team once again losing another home ground after the Confederation of African Football (Caf) declared the Sam Nujoma Stadium unfit for international matches. Already unable to play at the historic Independence Stadium due to the state of that stadium, the national team will be required to play international matches outside Namibia.Sources who chose to speak on condition of anonymity fumed at both the Namibia Football Association (NFA) and the municipality for the state of the stadiums. “This is really a disgrace towards a country as big as Namibia that we are not able to play at our own stadiums.“What has this country turned into and are we slowly becoming another Southern African country?“This is something that the association and the City of Windhoek, including the government, should have fixed a long time ago,” the source fumed.Not only has the NFA lost another football ground for international matches, but the association was also fined US$6 000 - (N$85 000) for lack of technical facilities in the stadium.The NFA has to settle the fine within seven days from 21 April 2021. NFA secretary-general Franco Cosmos was quoted by the NFA media as stating that that the humiliating situation could only get worse if the stadium was not upgraded as soon as possible.“CAF got the report from the match officials who inspected the Sam Nujoma Stadium during our Afcon qualifier against Guinea last month and the disciplinary committee has fined us accordingly.“We have raised these issues since 2019 and they are not addressed yet,” Cosmos said.Cosmos further said in an NFA statement that the FA now must cough up the fine and engage the soon to be appointed interim coach of the Brave Warriors on alternative venue for the World Cup qualifiers that start in June 2021.“The Emergency Committee will on Tuesday decide who can lead us during the upcoming matches until such time that our recruitment process for a substantive coach is finalised. “So, with the coach, we will decide and identify alternative venue outside the country for the next games. Mind you, this is not just about the Brave Warriors but all our national teams and this will be so costly and humiliating. We have shared this report with relevant authorities in the country again. These players deserve to play at home,” Cosmos said. Caf explains that the stadium infractions were viewed in the Caf Match Command Centre (MCC) and reported by the designated Caf match officials and identified a lack of multiple Caf stadium requirements and poor artificial pitch which requires replacement, inadequate and poor team and official benches, no fixed individual spectator seats in all sectors in the stadium. Dressing rooms need to be modern and of international standard, media and medical facilities need to be upgraded and the stadium needs general improvement and upgrade work. Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) chief administrator Freddy Mwiya said he had been aware of the situation since last year and would engage the ministry on the way forward. “We started engaging about these things already last year before the Covid-19 era. It is a terrible thing but we are now going to have a meeting with the executive director in the ministry of sport and also our football affiliates to see on how we can rescue this situation,” Mwiya said. In the race to the Qatar 2022 World Cup, Namibia is in Group H with Senegal, Togo, and Congo-Brazzaville with only the group winner progressing to the third and final round of the world cup qualifiers. They will host Congo between 5 and 8 June and will visit Togo a week later, 11 to 15 June.The qualifiers will then resume in September and the Warriors will visit group favourites Senegal from 1 to 4 September and then host them from 5 to 9 September.Brazzaville will be the next venue as they visit Congo between 6 and 9 October and then return home to host Togo between 11 and 12 October. - Additional information by NFA

Football city falls apart

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-29

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Football city falls apart

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-29

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