Namibia's participation at upcoming international events is expected to go ahead despite the government's financial difficulties.

The secretary general of the Namibia Football Association, Franco Cosmos on Wednesday said the Brave Warriors' participation in next month's Cosafa Cup competition in South Africa was in danger due to a lack of finances, and the fact that they had not received any funding from the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service for the past two years.

Recent reports also indicated that Namibia's participation at next month's Olympic Games was in doubt due to a lack of funding from the government.

The executive director in the ministry, Audrin Mathe on Tuesday, however, said they have funds, but sport codes need to follow the correct procedures to get financial assistance.

"We never said that there was no money, but the NFA will have to follow the proper channels - they have to put in a request to receive funding. If there is no money available we will tell them, but till now we haven't received a request from them," he said.

"We don't fund federations, they get funding via the Sport Commission based on what activities they have and it must be justified. If they put in a request we will look at it, but we receive a lot of requests and others might be more needy," he added.

Regarding the Olympics, Mathe said they will support the Namibian team financially.

"We have already confirmed that we will support our athletes with accommodation, travel and clothing, but we are still waiting to hear who will be in the final team," he said.

Cosmos, meanwhile, said they have always submitted an annual budget that includes details of individual tournaments.

"We submit an annual budget to the Sport Commission, which includes an activity calendar and details regarding tournaments coming up. We normally submit that in December or just before the end of the financial year," he said.

"We did that again, but we didn't receive any funding this year, also for our participation at the Chan tournament in Cameroon and the u20 Afcon finals in Mauritania, and the last time we received funding was for our participation at the Afcon finals in 2019."

Cosmos, however, said they still hope to compete at the Cosafa Cup tournament.

"We are in discussions with our sponsor Tafel Lager and hopefully with their support we will be able to participate at the Cosafa Cup."

Olympic Committee still waiting

The secretary general of the Namibia National Olympic Committee, Joan Smit, said they had not received any funding for the Olympics yet.

"Two weeks ago we had a meeting with the minister and the deputy minister of sport, as well as Mathe where he promised that we would receive funding. He said they they would try to get an extra N$3 million from other pockets in the ministry for the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games teams, but up to now we haven't received anything, while we also didn't receive anything for the preparation of our athletes," she said.

"In the past the government said they would pay, but in the end we didn't get anything, so I'm not so sure. There are only three weeks to go before the team leaves and we still haven't received any feedback on whether the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games teams will be supported or not," she added.

Smit, however, said they would definitely go to the Olympics.

"We have to go, we can't expect the athletes to work so hard and then say sorry, but you can't go. We will have to make use of our Olympic Solidarity grant and our continental grant to assist the athletes, but I'm just concerned about the Paralympic team, because they don't receive Olympic Solidarity funding," she said.

The chief administrator of the Namibia Sport Commission, Fred Mwiya said government support depends on what they can afford.

"We give funding according to established programmes in place - for international multi-sport events like the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, the Africa Games, and Region 5 Games, so that is the first priority. Then it goes to confederation events like Chan or Afcon for football. We know that they (NFA) get funding from CAF (Confederation of African Football), so if they approach us, we see if we can cover the shortfall, but it depends on what the government can afford," he said.

The government's financial contribution to football, and sport in general, has plummeted in recent years.

In 2017 the NFA's international participation grant from government of N$10 million was cut to N$3,3 million, while no funds have been made available for the past two years.

Mwiya said that sport's budget had been severely cut this year.

"We submitted our annual budget of N$89 million, but the Ministry of Finance did not approve our request and we only received N$8,6 million. N$80 million was supposed to go to the sport codes and the rest for operational purposes of the Sport Commission, but our running costs are N$12 million, so we are already in a deficit for this year," he said.

"Sport codes need to apply again for individual tournaments, but it's not guaranteed that they will receive anything - we will first have to see if we have any savings that we can use, so it's not easy," he said.

Copyright The Namibian. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source News Service English