Patriots crowned futsal champions

Patriots Futsal Club were crowned the 2023 futsal champions on Wednesday, while future plans to expand the sport in Namibia were announced. 

Patriots already won the men’s Premier League title in April when they beat Quality by a point to the title, while Selecao of Swakopmund came third. 

Ken Salote of Quality won the top goalscorer award, Barry February of Patriots the best goalie award, and Eduardo Solunga of Quality the fairplay award.

Khomas Nampol won the women’s title for the second year running, with Tura Magic coming second and Ramblers third, while City Stars won the men’s first division, followed by Demia FC and Minerals FC. All three these teams as well as fourth-placed Mavericks have now also been promoted to the men’s Premier League for next season. 

The Physically Active Youth team won the Girls u17 title, followed by Royal Academy and Orange Babes. 

Futsal organiser Andrei Tirtirau, meanwhile, said that futsal was growing rapidly in Namibia, while they will expand the league for the coming season. 

“We are inundated on a daily basis with new teams from all over the country that want to join. So we’re trying to take our time and trying to see how we can do it without exploding or imploding. We need to have the facilities and the admin team to support it, otherwise it will be very hard for us to grow the sport correctly,” he said. 

“We are launching a new league in July with a bit of a newer format, with more players and more teams. The league will run to December and then next year it will run from January to December with a break or two in between,” he added. 

Tirtirau added that discussions with the Namibia Football Association have been held to become affiliated, which will give them access to Fifa support. 

“It will be an advantage to be able to have access to quality coaching and referees straight from Fifa, and it will give us access to knowledge,” he said. 

He said they also hoped to start competing internationally. 

“Fifa announced at the end of last year that they will hold a Women’s Futsal Cup, which is fantastic, which means that we can put Namibia on the map very quickly. In addition to this, we want to launch a first Africa Cup where we want to invite the best teams in Africa to come and compete in Windhoek or at the coast. In addition to this, we’re also planning a bid to host the Cosafa Futsal Cup in Namibia, because we have the facilities, we have the players and we have the drive as well.”