Futsal back with Ongos Winter Cup 

After an absence of about three months, futsal action returns to Namibia when the Ongos Winter Cup will be held at the Windhoek Showgrounds next weekend. 

At a press conference in Windhoek yesterday, futsal league director Donawald Modise announced the competition which has been sponsored to an amount of N$80 000 by Ongos Valley. 

“We are thankful to Ongos for sponsoring our first league cup for the season. The cup which will consist of 32 teams, is a straight knockout competition, and will be held at the Windhoek Showgrounds from 4 to 6 July. The matches start on Thursday and continue through to Saturday when the final will be held. The entrance fee is N$750 per team, while the prize money is N$10 000 for the winners, N$5 000 for the runners-up and N$2 500 for the third-placed team,” he said.

Namibia futsal organiser Absai Simon said the new futsal league will start in August. 

“The league will start in mid-August but we still need some issues to attend to with regard to the upskilling of coaches and referees. We are collaborating with the NFA and Fifa who will assist us with coaching clinics,” he said. 

“We will also hold a women’s tournament in mid-August because we want to prepare well and try and qualify for next year’s Women’s Futsal World Cup. Two countries from Africa will qualify and I think we have a good chance of making it. We will invite all the Women Super League football teams to enter the cup competition and any other ladies who are interested to play,” he added.

Earlier this year Namibia’s men’s team qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals for the first time after beating Tanzania on aggregate home and away, but their debut at Afcon in Rabat, Morocco in April was disappointing as they lost all their matches, going down 10-3 to Egypt, 11-5 to Libya and 5-4 to Mauritania. 

Modise, however, said they had gained invaluable experience. 

“The Afcon experience was immense, we picked up a lot of valuable knowledge and there are a few things that we are working on. That’s why we have the coaches course coming up and we want to improve the teams. What we learnt at Afcon in Morocco is that futsal is run professionally over there – most of their teams are professional, but here we don’t have that privilege yet,” he said. 

“Here we are still building, we are still taking baby steps, but we picked up a lot and we are willing to learn and we will build on that,” he said.

Simon welcomed the recent news that Ongos plans to construct a 30 000-seater sport stadium and sport village on the outskirts of Katutura.

“It’s a dream come true for Namibia as a country as well as me as an ex-player. We have been here for 34 years since independence and only now we get this investment from a Namibian company. I know they will also have futsal courts in their plans which will be a good thing for Katutura and Namibia at large,” he said. 

The deadline for entries for the Ongos Winter Cup is on Sunday, 30 June and entries can be made at futsal-namibia.com or on their social media pages.