Cosmos’ NFA return explained

Namibia Football Association (NFA) communications and marketing manager Isack Hamata says Franco Cosmos was brought back to meet Fifa requirements.

Cosmos, the vice chairperson of Namibia’s first Fifa Normalisation Committee (NC) and former NFA secretary general, was appointed as the director of membership, governance and compliance earlier this month.

His return was out of necessity and familiarity with the inner-workings of the NFA, and as a requirement by Fifa for any football association to have, says Hamata.

“We need to have somebody looking at legal issues, membership and governance. When you get funding from Fifa, there are certain boxes that you must tick and some of them are related to governance.

“You must make sure that you speak the language that they (Fifa) speak and Cosmos is the right person, having been the NFA’s secretary general and being a legal person,” says Hamata.

“Cosmos is the man when it comes to effecting governance and proper structures on clear responsibilities from the NFA to its members.”

Another familiar face back at the NFA is that of Hilda Basson Namundjebo, who headed the NC along with Cosmos. She now serves as chairperson of the NFA Committee for Resource Mobilisation and Sponsorship.

The committee is “doing a good job at the moment” and an announcement on its progress with regard to securing investors will be made in due course, says Hamata.

“According to the NFA’s statutes, there has to be such a committee,” says Hamata, who is also among those who recently took up portfolios at the NFA, following the election of new leadership.

While he has no qualms with Cosmos’ return, ex-Namibia Football Players Union secretary general Olsen Kahiriri has reservations about the NFA’s other new appointments.

The outspoken sport and labour consultant blames the delayed kick-off to the 2024-25 season on the new recruits. All divisions will kickoff on 2 November and the transfer window runs until until 30October, the NFA said.

“At this point in time, we are discussing other football leagues [around the world] that have already started. Here in Namibia, we are currently discussing issues of an unconfirmed sponsor and an undisclosed date for the 2024/25 football season,” Kahiriri said in a recent interview with Desert Radio.

“It is pathetic and heartbreaking. We elected the wrong people into portfolios, we don’t want the right people in the right portfolios,” Kahiriri charged.

“I was at the NFA [Soccer] House, where I saw a lot of new faces and have no idea how these people were recruited.

“When were those advertisements made? Things have now become secretive at the NFA, it’s buddy-buddy now.

“We are back to square one, where they secretly give each other portfolios at the NFA, when it is a public institution.

“I will give credit to the likes of former NFA secretary general Franco Cosmos, where positions were advertised. That is one thing he could do right.”

Representatives of the 16 premiership clubs recently held talks regarding the season’s kick-off, resolving that it gets underway in November.

“Leagues must be professionally run and lots need to be done. Sponsors must be the ones running behind the NFA and not the other way round,” he said.

Kahiriri called for the establishment of an independent league and for the NFA to remain a national football regulator.

“If you are the regulator, why do you want to be an administrator at the same time? There must be checks and balances. The NFA duties are to develop football, regulate and not administer.”