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Premier League Chair calls it quits

Chairman of the MTC Namibia Premier League, Johnny Johnson Doeseb

Chairman of the MTC Namibia Premier League, Johnny Johnson Doeseb

Poor professionalism and the hand out syndrome, amongst other reasons have prompted, the long serving Chairman of the MTC Namibia Premier League, Johnny Johnson Doeseb to throw in the towel when his tenure in office ends come July 2014. In a recent press release Doeseb cited some of the reasons for his actions as lack of professionalism at club level to do the basics right, a lack of serious commitment from teams at Board of Governor level in terms of building a strong football brand and the clear lack of development structures in Namibia. “Almost all the teams sit back and all they do is wait for MTC’s monthly grants and they do absolutely nothing to generate their own revenues and when their monthly grants are a few days late they complain instead of doing something to sustain themselves.” added Doeseb.

He castigated the actions of those individuals that do not appreciate the efforts and investments by the main sponsor MTC as well as the constant empty stadiums during local clashes. “If you invest so much into football and all you get is backstabbing and rumour mongering from people at the highest level of football who you are supposed to share the same vision with, it becomes fruitless to make such worthy investments.”he stressed. “We cannot maintain the current status quo if we are serious about taking football to the next level, and I can therefore not sit back and pretend everything is fine, our football needs lots of money and a good leadership and in the lack of both we are wasting our time.” The former club owner, and passionate football fan Doeseb has been at the forefront of negotiating a mega deal with main sponsor MTC that saw the telecommunications company invest over N$ 40 million for the next 3 years,the highest investment ever made by any corporate into sports in Namibia. Doeseb commended MTC’s efforts to uplift the sports in Namibia but castigated “prophets of doom that are quick to call MTC names” and highlighted how the country can not pin its entire hopes on one corporate. “I would like to thank the few individuals within our football structures who shared the same vision and drive with me, and I would like to urge them to continue fighting the good fight. I would like to thank all football fans, supporters and the general public for the support they have granted me during my Chairmanship, and I wish the new Chairperson all the best.” he said.

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