Namibian Coach Resigns. Or Doesn’t. Or…Something

By: Laurie | December 4th, 2007

Last week, the media were reporting that the Namibian Coach, Ben Bamfuchile, had resigned to go back to his mining business. This week, they’re reporting that he says he never did any such thing.

Bamfuchile, who became a national hero this year when Namibia qualified for the African Cup of Nations for only the second time in its history, gave an “exclusive interview” to The Namibian in which he supposedly resigned last week while obliquely claiming that the football association didn’t live up to certain promises, possibly related to buying him a car. According to Goal.com:

“I am tired. I’ve had enough. I am done now. It’s over,” he said.

According to The Namibian, He said he had to take a taxi to work at Soccer House or ask his team manager, Tim Isaacs, for a lift to the office.

Sounding highly discontented, he was further quoted as saying, “I am not a kid and I am not a beggar. I don’t beg for money or anything. I thought I would be treated with respect and being a professional, I thought things would be done in a professional way. But for a national team coach not to have transport, which is so important to carry out duties, is really shameful.”

But wait a second. Not so fast. Later last week, BBC reported that he was undecided about his future with the team.

And news today is that he so did NOT resign and has no idea how those rumors got started.

According to The Namibian newspaper, which originally reported the coach’s alleged resignation, Ben Bamfuchile and the Namibian Football Association’s acting secretary-general Barry Rukoro have issued a joint statement vehemently denying the resignation of the coach. …

The Namibian also reported that Rukoro described Bamfuchile as “not well”, before saying that Bamfuchile’s ill-health has prompted the NFA to start seeking “at all costs” a coach who was in good health and would lead the team to Ghana for the African Cup of Nations.

He allegedly also argued that providing a vehicle for him – as per Bamfuchile’s apparently demands – would “endanger his life”.

Endanger whose life, exactly? And how? (And for the record, The Namibian stands by its original resignation report. Which I can’t read because their website is apparently not working.)

And to make things even curiouser, when you run a Google search for news on Bamfuchile, the search page will give you multiple citations from The Namibian giving SMS “quotes of the day” that say things like: