NPL awards need rethinking

Since their hosting on Sunday evening, this year’s Namibia Premier League (NPL) awards have sparked a contentious debate in all circles of society, including social networking sites.

Without beating around the bush, there’s been arguments about how the Coach of the Year Award went to Brian Isaacs who served as Technical Director of league champions Black Africa.

The absence of the Young Player of the Year Category, usually a perfect booster to encourage discipline and hard work among young footballers, was also heavily criticised.

We were all along made to believe that Otto Landsberg was the coach of Black Africa for the whole of last season and when his boss, Isaacs, pips him to the award of best coach, questions will be asked. And that is what is currently happening.

Theodore Dumitru, popularly known as Ted Dumitru, is currently the Technical Director at prestigious South African club Mamelodi Sundowns.

Even when Sundowns was on a rollercoaster and winning everything there is, Dumitru was never short-listed for the Coach of the Year Award, let alone winning it.

If Ted wins ahead of NAME, football hooligans in South Africa will head to No 2 Winchester Road to demand answers from PSL Chairman Dr Irvin ‘The Iron Duke’ Khoza and league’s CEO on how a technical director was made Coach of the Year.

How do you encourage excellence in a particular area of football if those in that section of the sport can lose out to those from beyond its boundaries?

How do you encourage goalkeepers to produce best performances if defenders, central or full-backs, are allowed to compete in the category of Best Goalkeeper?

Do not misinterpret our stance on the matter and our general opinion of Brian Isaacs as coach. He was not long ago the interim coach of the Brave Warriors and we are convinced he was appointed on merit because he is indeed a good football coach.

In the same vein, we are not at all questioning the wonderful job he did at BA during a season that the team only lost once (after it had already won the league) and winning 17 of their 22 league matches.

Our argument is that if Isaacs was coach, then that position must be made clear because we were told he’s the team’s technical director.

MTC, as the main sponsor of local football and NPL awards, must make money available for well-organised and clearly defined awards.