Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Namibia Premier League (NPL) needs about N$40 million per season to successfully maintain a domestic professional football league.
The NPL was recently granted a licence to operate a professional football league in the country by the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC).
In an interview with Desert Radio 95.3 FM, Tura Magic Football Club executive chairman Paulus Ngolombe, who also represents the sport club on the NPL board of governors, said the last operational budget for the 2017/18 football season was N$29 million.
However, with the envisaged professional league set to be rolled out throughout the country, the NPL board came up with a new estimated budget due to an expected increase in the monthly allowance, to N$60 000 for first division clubs and N$110 000 for premier division sides.
Ngolombe acknowledged that the NPL board are looking at a conglomerate of sponsors, not just one main sponsor as had been the case in the past.
He said professionalising of domestic football started in 2012, which was indicative in the NPL scaling down to 16 teams.
“Professionalising the league is not something new, meetings were held between the NPL and the Namibia Football Association (NFA), which were chaired by representatives from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa).”
“The dream of turning football professional has to happen. NPL has a licence for two tiers – the first division and the premier first division, and in all this there must be regional representation and not football mostly played in Windhoek,” stressed Ngolombe.
He added that the envisaged professional football league must appeal to the masses from across the country.
Ngolombe admitted that it’s important to have an in-depth understanding of running a professional league.
Though he was privy to the details pertaining to potential sponsors, the NPL will soon make the announcement, he said.
Besides clubs depending on the sponsorship deal as had been the case in the past, clubs will now be allowed to generate their own funding based on the marketing template and how the branding will work out.
“We need to have more sponsors to be able to run a professional league,” he said.
BROADCASTING RIGHTS
“The broadcasting rights proposal, as we speak, is sitting with the broadcasters. The NPL will have the broadcasting rights while the online content will be up to the clubs to decide.”
He said the proposal on the broadcasting rights was presented in 2018 and is yet to be signed off.
However, Ngolombe admitted that the professional football league set-up is different because the proposal has to look at live broadcasts and delayed games, while the NPL also extended an expression of interest to media partners.
Meanwhile, initial estimations of 650 jobs created has increased tremendously due to the roll-out of the games and the number of vendors, security personal, medics, drivers and players (both male and female).
Ngolombe said in 2018 the NPL took stock of the quality of the different stadiums across the country, and only Karasburg has a gravel pitch that meets Fifa standards, where matches may be played.
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