The re-elected chairperson of the Hardap Football Association in Mariental, Michael Situde, is appealing to the Mariental Municipality for assistance in acquiring land under the FIFA Forward program. Situde aims to build a center that can benefit local football clubs.

Situde informed NBC Sport that currently, 90 percent of the football clubs in Mariental are training on gravel fields due to the lack of proper stadiums. He also mentioned that those who do have proper fields demand high rental rates, leading many teams to travel to neighboring towns for tournaments.

"Talking about the land and starting building, I can remember in 2021 we wrote a letter to the council we even went with the CEO and council and check where we can get land and apply through this FIFA Forward program up until now we haven't received the response from the Municipality on that request., because if we have a land FIFA forward can come in and build for us a center.

The center will benefit Rugby, Netball, and Athletics. FIFA will build it from the start with its money for 100%"

In response to these claims, Mariental's Chief Executive Officer, Paul Nghiwilepo, denies the allegations and states that they have already identified a piece of land as requested. However, logistical arrangements need to be put in place before handing it over to the Namibian Football Association (NFA).

"I was actually involved in the identification of that specific land, the Hardap Football Association wrote a letter, What we need to do is to further engage the mother body NFA with the Hardap Football Association, NFA is the body that runs football in this country, Any funding from FIFA will obviously come through NFA, so we also need to sit around the table with NFA to discuss this matter. In principle, there is no problem from the side of the council but we just need to get assurance from the NFA as well that indeed that is the objective of the NFA overall to get land for Sports facilities in the region"

Regarding the high tariffs charged by the municipality for other facilities, Nghiwilepo explained how these charges are calculated. He also revealed that while Mariental used to have three stadiums, currently only one is in a usable condition.

" The rates that we charge for the usage of the sports facilities in Mariental are rates that are determined by the council, but how we arrive determine our rates for sports facilities you look at the maintenance course of maintaining those facilities you have people caretakers and they and laborers that are working there to look at the facilities, the cost of maintaining the facilities that determined the tariff that we charge, We must pride ourselves that Mariental Municipality we have one of the best and well maintained Sport Facility especially the surface of our sport well maintained and it cost a lot of money and effort to keep it that way, that's why we said people must contribute in terms of the tariff that we are charging "

The appeal for land and the efforts to improve the football facilities in Mariental demonstrate the commitment of the Hardap Football Association and the municipality to provide better opportunities for local football clubs and players.