Shipanga heads NFA secretariat

Jacqueline Shipanga has been installed as acting secretary general of the Namibia Football Association, the federation’s president, Robert Shimooshili, said on Friday.

She replaces Jochen Traut, who held the position on an interim basis.

“His contract is coming to an end this month. It does not make sense to keep someone who is leaving signing for things on behalf of the NFA,” Shimooshili said.

The vacancy for the substantive position will be advertised next week, he added.

Shipanga appeared up for the challenge of steering the national football mother body’s secretariat until the position is filled.

“Where does a girl start who grew up in Grootfontein? When a girl of six takes a ball and kicks it, how dare she think and have the audacity that one day she would be given a platform of this magnitude?

“Not only to be the technical director of the association, but also to be able to be in the capacity of acting secretary general,” Shipanga said during the PstBet NFA Cup signing ceremony in Windhoek on Friday.

“If you have the right leadership in place, with the right passion, with the right competency and vision, everything else will come.”

Traut, a former Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (Cran) chief operations officer, was initially appointed interim NFA secretary general by the Fifa Normalisation in July 2022 for a period of 12 months.

His contract was then extended until March this year.