Windhoek hosts World Fistball Championship for the fifth time

Namibia will host the Club World Championship, known as Weltcup at the SKW Sports field starting this Friday afternoon.
The continental club champions will meet to determine the best club side in the world. Traditionally the tournament is played between the European and south American champions.
However since the Weltcup is hosted by the Fistball Association of Namibia, the Bank Windhoek National Fistball league champions may also participate.
As Namibia is the only Fistball playing country in Africa, the Namibian champions automatically qualify to participate at the Fistball Weltcup. The SKW team will compete at the event for the eight time. They have dominated the local Fistball scene over the past years by winning back to back national championships since 1996.
The home team has never won at any of the previous appearances at the competition.
Player-coach Stefan Grögli however believes that with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck the team might win a set against one of the more fancied opponents.
This is the fifth time the Weltcup will be held in Namibia. Previous editions of the event were successfully hosted in 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2010. This year two teams, the European champions TSV Pfungstadt and Sociedade Ginastica Novo Hamburgo from Brazil will be in Windhoek to participate in the championships.
The team from the province of Rio Grande do Sul have won the Brazilian championship multiple times. They are also the defending Weltcup champions, having won the trophy in 2012 on their home ground.
Novo Hamburgo have fond memories of Namibia, having beaten Austrian team ASKÖ Urfahr  here in 2010 to win the Weltcup after a nine year dry spell.
The TSV Pfungstadt club has proud fistball tradition.
Led by coach Dieter Thomas, the team won several German championships in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. They have won the Weltcup twice in 1977 and 1979.