Nam scraps Futsal Open, World Cup still on
ONE of the most anticipated events on Namibia’s sports calendar, the Futsal Open, which was scheduled for the end of October at Windhoek Show Grounds has been cancelled.
Organisers, led by Andrei Tirtirau, say too few teams have expressed interest in participating in this year’s five-a-side soccer tournament due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tirtirau told The Southern Times Sport that they were, however, pressing ahead with preparations to host the Summer Word Cup in Windhoek this year.
“The decision was confirmed after taking careful considerations of the few responses which we received. The challenge is lack of responses, commitment and sponsorship. We have tried two tournaments so far and we had to cancel them. Now we are focused on the Summer World Cup which will be done in a World Cup format in Windhoek, and we will be launching the Futsal Academy in January next year,” said Tirtirau.
“The Open Cup was cancelled due to the fact that few teams registered before the closing deadline, which was on the 22nd of October. But the senior tournament for 35 years and above, which was previously postponed, will go ahead next month.”
Tirtirau – who was born in Romania and grew up in Canada – has played soccer in Canada, Spain and Romania before moving to Namibia a decade ago. After all the years of pouring his life and soul into football, he is not about to let the new coronavirus derail his passion.
“I have seen the need for Futsal and five-a-side development in Namibia and decided to open a Futsal Academy. The idea during this starting phase is to start with some few tournaments focusing more on youth development. It is the first of its kind in Namibia. We plan to look at a grassroots soccer academy and we plan to launch it in January 2021,” he said.
Tirtirau said the academy would be linked to schools and would target developing talent from the age of six years. In July, he made a stab at hosting a futsal tournament but Covid-19 cut it short.
“We had a total of 20 teams which participated, but due to the pandemic, the tournament never reached the finals. Atletico Windhoek ended up winning the tournament as they got more points overall. We are looking at having more tournaments next year when we hope Namibia would have flattened the Covid-19 curve.” Needless to say, he is also looking at establishing futsal league.