Brave Warriors Coach Ricardo Mannetti has called on corporate companies to invest in football through their social corporate responsibility programmes and thus mitigate the various challenges the football fraternity faces. Speaking to NBC during the popular Dr Bernard Haufiku Sport tournament held at Onheleiwa village in the Omusati region over the weekend, Mannetti said sport is important for the upliftment of the youth and therefore much support should be given to it. Among other things, this year's tournament aimed at bringing young people together to be educated about the nationwide Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision campaign. Mannetti expressed his disappointment with the fact that only a few corporate companies are showing interest in supporting sport in the country. He singled out MTC as one of the best sport supporters, while alleging that the majority turn a blind eye on financing sports. “It is important for corporate Namibia to drop the excuses, what is wrong with corporate Namibia to support just 1%? They had all this excuses for years, the big companies here we are supporting them but they take that very same money and support football in South Africa and when we go and knock at their doors they say we do not do sport but you take our money back to South Africa,” he said. He believes that a lot still needs to be done to take modern sport facilities to rural areas, where talents remain untapped due to a lack of infrastructure. Mannetti says young people need to be kept busy after school with sport and other hobbies to prevent them from indulging in unwarranted acts. He says with the current financial crisis in the country and budget cuts, sports finds itself at the receiving end.