Ring the changes in sport Namibian football sailed further into the doldrums this week. The announcement made on Monday in which MTC ditched the Namibia Premier League (NPL) after failing to secure an additional sponsor for the new season, is depressing news and heaven only knows what the future holds for Namibian football. Now that MTC has made its feelings known, questions abound as to what should happen next considering that the new football season is due to kick off in a few weeks’ time.
Players, coaches, support staff and NPL officials all face a bleak future if no sponsor comes on board at least with a N$24-million commitment. Enough has been said about the governing of sport, including football in this country, which has been mismanaged, coupled with financial difficulties. We are nowhere close to getting the basics right and we should stop pretending to be a sporting nation. We are not there yet! If you look elsewhere across the world, the governance of sport is autonomous and there is added pressure to be accountable.
But back home every Tom, Dick and Harry is allowed to run things and are largely not accountable to their actions when they mess up.
As much as we want to chart a positive way forward, we must be honest with ourselves and call a spade a spade.
We will not achieve anything with the status quo. Leadership is lacking from the side of all role players, including the lack of political will to improve matters. The dynamic of sport transcends all social, political and ethnic barriers and not to forget its magnificent ability to unite people. It remains a powerful communication tool. No doubt.
The reason why our athletes’ participation in sports is awfully low is because we really don’t care about this important sector.
We must make sweeping changes in sport and replace all those occupying top positions with those who have the interests of sportswomen and -men at heart. Our attention should be geared towards coming up with a proper sport programme and developing our sport systems, which can appeal to potential sponsors.