Namibia 2014: Empty stadiums a problem - Hayatou

The president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Issa Hayatou congratulated Namibia on a successful hosting of the Africa Women Championships, but said the poor attendances to date would hamper its efforts to host bigger tournaments in future.

The president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Issa Hayatou congratulated Namibia on a successful hosting of the Africa Women Championships, but said the poor attendances to date would hamper its efforts to host bigger tournaments in future.During a courtesy call on Prime Minister Hage Geingob yesterday, Hayatou gave CAF’s seal of approval for the African Women Championship and said that Namibia may apply to host bigger tournaments in future.

“You are welcome to apply for another tournament to be hosted by Namibia in the future because we have been very impressed and well received here,” he said.

Geingob said Namibia would like to host the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament for men, but Hayatou said that infrastructure had to be improved to accommodate more people.

“You have good stadiums, but it is not easy because Afcon is not like other tournaments. It is very important to improve the infrastructure to assimilate more people.”

Geingob said that would not be a problem, but Hayatou cautioned that the poor attendances at the African Women Championships was not good for its image.

“You can construct the infrastructure, but the problem is to get people to come to the stadiums. This tournament is being seen all over the world on TV and it is not good for CAF if people just see empty stadiums,” he said. Geingob remained upbeat, saying he would ensure that Namibia would draw the crowds.

“Even at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, there were empty stadiums in the beginning. If we get the Afcon Cup, we will get the people here. I’ll even go to Angola and South Africa to get the people, we have SADC solidarity here,” Geingob joked.

Hayatou was accompanied by a CAF delegation consisting of its second vice president Almamy Kabele Camara, executive members Dr Molefi Olifant and Magdy Shams el Din, and deputy general secretary Essam Ahmed. The president of the Namibia Football Association John Muinjo was also in attendance.

Hayatou thanked Geingob for his presence and support of the Women Championship.

“Your presence at the stadium gave a high value to the tournament and CAF highly appreciates this. The success of this tournament is because of your presence here,” he said.

“I am surprised at the how well the tournament has been organised, how nice the country is and how hospitable the people are,” he added.

Hayatou said all the teams were happy with the organisation of the tournament. “All the teams that are here are satisfied with the hospitality, accommodation and transport. Normally at these events one experiences problems with accommodation and transport but all these problems have been solved,” he said.

“I am very satisfied with the organisation of the tournament and the attitude of the spectators, who have been very civilised - there has been no discrimination and they have applauded players from all the teams,” he added.

“We are very satisfied with the job that the NFA has done. They have worked night and day with us to solve any problems that arose,” he said.