Namibia: Doëseb Gives Arrows the Boot

Carlos Kambaekwa

16 June 2011

Windhoek — The three-year romance between flamboyant mining magnate Johnny “JJD” Doëseb and coastal football giants Eleven Arrows has hit the rocks.

The spectacular fallout is precipitated by a disagreement over the sharing of N$600 000 that came with a glittering leo/NFA trophy clinched by the coastal football giants.

Sources with close ties to the inner doings of the coastal outfit, confirmed to New Era Sports yesterday that the youthful tycoon is no longer interested in funding the team and has informed the club’s executive accordingly.

Doëseb took over the reins at the cash-stripped club halfway through the 2008/2009 campaign and made an immediate impression when he turned Arrows into one of the most properly administered football entities in the domestic elite league.

The club reached the final of the lucrative Cell One NFA Cup in his maiden season where they lost to FNB Orlando Pirates on penalties under the tutelage of Zimbabwean coach Gilbert Rwasoka.

Arrows boasts one of the best lodgings for players on the entire African continent while the playing personnel is wheeled around in state of the art buses fitted with air-conditioners and an assortment of other luxuries.

Although Arrows failed to win the coveted MTC Premiership title – the team ended the 2010/2011 season on a high note when it captured the much-sought-after leo NFA Cup after seeing off Civics 2-0 at a packed-to-the rafters Kuisebmund Stadium in Walvis-Bay, recently.

Arrows went home N$600 000 richer for their efforts.

Doëseb yesterday confirmed his departure but he could not divulge more details as to what led to his shock resignation from the club that he has generously bankrolled.

“I just want to concentrate on my business, but I will not be entirely lost to football as I will still continue to serve the game in my capacity as NPL chairman,” he said.

New Era Sports has it on good authority that greed by several club members is one of the main reasons that triggered the acrimonious departure of Doeseb.

“He (Doëseb) has pumped in a lot of money into the club and yet some people don’t seem to appreciate the good work he has done for this club,” said a club insider who asked for his identity to be withheld for fear of reprisals.

It is further claimed that Arrows’ victory in the leo NFA Cup and the possible transfer of former striker Rudolph Bester to newly-crowned PSL champions Orlando Pirates have left some people within the Arrows family eyeing a cut from both deals.

Arrows still holds a stake in Bester whom they sold to Maritzburg United in the 2009/2010 season.

Doëseb is the incumbent chairperson of the country’s elite league – the MTC Premiership. He was a forerunner to purchase ownership of troubled South African Premier League outfit Moroka Swallows, but the deal fell through following the sudden death of Swallows’ majority shareholder Dieter Bock, last year.

AllAfrica – All the Time