Message from the Coach

Helmut Scharnowski

U17 League to start: Wednesday, April 9, 2008 The Khomas Under 17 Football League will kick off this weekend for the second successive season following the launch at the NFA's Soccer House in Katutura yesterday. Once again a total of 24 teams will participate in Stream A and Stream B, but the defending champions, Civics, will not be in action. Civics beat the Collin Benjamin Soccer Academy (CBSA) in last season's final to win the inaugural trophy, but their president Helmut Scharnowski told Namibia Sport that he did not have enough players to field a team this year. Civics' former director of development Mario Carreira joined Orlando Pirates and took most of Civics' U17 players along with him. "I was in Germany recuperating from my heart condition and when I returned I discovered that Mario Carreira had taken more than 20 of our Under 17 players to join Orlando Pirates," he said. "It took me two years to develop that team and take them to the top, but now I will have to start from scratch again. I have only been back for three weeks and could not enter a team this season, but I will build a team again for the future," he said.