Stars parade, top-flight relegation takes centre stage

Debmarine Namibia Premiership champions African Stars plan to hold an open bus parade with the league trophy around Windhoek on Sunday.

Tomorrow, Stars host Young Brazilians at Independence Stadium in their final fixture of a “special season”, which has seen them lose only one match, draw seven others and win 21. There will be “a convoy from Katutura to the Independence Stadium”, the club said in statement.

Okaserandu kick-started their title celebrations programme on Wednesday with an open training session at Academia Sports Field where fans were allowed mingle with their heroes.

Yesterday, the club held a media briefing for the top-flight’s leading scorer Willy ‘Awilo’ Stephanus centred around his retirement from international football. He quit after being overlooked for the current Brave Warriors squad.

The festivities conclude with “an after-party with the fans at Paaltjies at Brakwater” after the parade on Sunday.

“We would like the full participation of the Okaserandu folklore, as we bring the curtain down to a very special season and your continued support is what makes our club great,” Stars said. 

While the champions celebrate, the gloom of relegation will be rubber-stamped for one of Julinho Sporting or Black Africa tomorrow, joining Eleven Arrows and Citizens.

Outgoing top division champions Black Africa occupy the final relegation position, with Julinho above them by a point, the only other side still in danger of going down.

Julinho could lose to Life Fighters tomorrow but still stay up, even if Black Africa defeat Young African in the simultaneous kickoff, should they be awarded three points for a home match that Citizens failed to show up for last month.

Also, Namibia football association (NFA) acting general secretary Jochen Traut rubbished suggestions that relegation and promotion will not take place across all domestic leagues this season.

Traut said all clubs are bound by the framework governing their respective competitions, despite recent objections he described as aimed to disrupt the progress football has made after a lenghty period in the doldrums.

“That is why all of them are playing, because they all agreed to these regulations,” he said.

“They [detractors] are doing this thing they did in the past where they try to disrupt things because certain clubs might be demoted,” Traut said in an interview with Desert Radio on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Black Africa executive Silvester ‘Lolo’ Goraseb disputed Traut’s position.

“BA did not sign or agree to anything of that effect. I’m aware of a number of other clubs who also have not. We are going to write to the NFA to get their position on the matter, because if clubs did not sign, then there is a problem,” said Goraseb.

“We don’t have a problem with going down to the first division. But we need clarity on the circumstances.”