By:Uakutura Kambaekua
Debmarine Namibia Football Premiership and First Division League teams have been accused of not honouring their obligations in remunerating football academies for their players. Several teams are said to have signed players from Outjo Football Academy without compensating the team for grooming the players.
Outjo Football Academy manager Hennie Kavendjii says that the three years of absence of domestic football in the country have resulted in his team losing 11 players for free this season.
Eleven of the academy players have joined the top-tier and first-division leagues prior to the commencement of football activities in the country.
Kavendjii also questioned the league’s administration criteria on the movement of players, saying that there was a list provided prior to the start of the league which listed the prices of players’ movement between clubs and divisions. However, due to the absence of football activities in the country for the past three years, Fifa’s Normalisation Committee (NC) at the Namibia Football Association (NFA) indicated that all players are free agents as no football activities were happening during that period. But Kavendjii contend that his team has been active for the period under review.
“We have been active with tournaments in the Kunene region. Our academy has been active in terms of training and recruitment,” he said in an interview with The Villager on Tuesday.
The agitated Kavendjii also questioned the NFA’s seriousness on grassroots development structures, noting that they have been spending their own money and resources to keep the players busy for the past three years. He said that the free transfer is taking advantage of their teams.
Outjo Football Academy is the only grassroots formation in the region. It has been in existence for over six yearswith scores of its players representing the country and other clubs in various divisions.
Kavendjii further told The Villager that he has been training the players out of his pocket but got nothing in return. Most Namibian football academies do not have binding contracts with their players because they are not remunerated.
The academy lost 11 players to other teams, resulting in N$7,000 losses in development fees due to the NFA’s announcement and decisions that players are free agents due to the disruption of football in the country for over three years as a result of in-fighting at the NFA.
Contacted for comment, NFA league administrators said the association is still studying the case and thus cannot comment at the moment.