Stuttering start to Debmarine Premiership

The 2024/25 Debmarine Namibia Premiership season got off to a stuttering start on Friday as two matches were postponed, while Saturday’s first round matches all ended in draws.

Defending champions African Stars’ match against Young African was postponed, as was the match between Civics and Unam, due to technicalities relating to the new ownership of the clubs.

The Namibia Football Association’s (NFA) recently appointed director of membership, governance and compliance, Franco Cosmos, did not respond to queries but, according to a source who preferred to remain anonymous, the postponements had to do with a change in ownership and name changes for both clubs.

“Young African asked for a postponement because they have new ownership which wants to change their name to the Green Family, but it still has to be approved by the compliance division of the NFA. It’s the same with Civics who have new owners who want to change the name to Bucks Buccaneers,” the source said.

The league kicked off on Friday night, with last year’s runners-up FC Ongos and Tigers battling it out to a 1-1 draw.

The match produced few highlights or chances of note and seemed to be petering out into a drab draw when Ongos’ industrious striker Simon Elago struck with a great goal five minutes from time. He launched a quick counter-attack, exchanged passes with Punaje Katjimune, and raced clear of the defence to hit the back of the net from an acute angle.

Tigers, however, came roaring back and with the match deep into injury time, their national midfielder Kennedy Amutenya pounced to score from close range and grabbed a late equaliser.

Tigers’ coach Woody Jacobs said he was happy with a point.

“The match only came alive in the last five minutes … I’m just happy that we didn’t lose, because if we had lost it would have been very difficult to pick up the lads, and I’m glad they responded the way they did after conceding that goal. I think we defended a bit naively but it’s a work in progress and it’s the first game of the season, so we can’t really judge them on that. I think there were some good individual performances and overall by the team, and there’s a lot that we can work on and build on,” he said.

“I’m happy with a point against a very strong side, an Ongos team that is well-oiled and well-drilled, and they’ve been playing together for quite a long time. So the fact that we didn’t lose elates me and I’m happy with a point and now we move on to the next match. I think it’s a fair result, Ongos were the favourites, but we stood our ground against a very strong team,” he added.

Jacobs said there are high expectations on the team and he would consider new signings if they become available.

“If there’s a player available that we can sign to strengthen the team, yes of course we will look at that, because Tigers is a illustrious team with a great history and it’s always a team that wants to challenge for titles, so there are high expectations on the team. So if there’s any quality we can bring in, we will look at it but we also need to coach, we need to make our current players better than what they were tonight,” he said.

All the other first round matches on Saturday ended in draws.

Blue Waters and Blue Boys drew 0-0 in the coastal derby, while Julinho Sporting and Cuca Tops drew 1-1 in the Rundu derby. Eeshoke Chula Chula and KK Palace drew 0-0 in the northern derby played at Grootfontein, while Young Brazilians and Khomas Nampol drew 2-2 at Keetmanshoop.