28.03.2014
Windhoek, Namibia

South West Africa football stars of 1975-1976 meet for reunion

South West Africa football stars of 1975/1976: Controversial penalty kick: Gernot Ahrens against goalkeeper Bonnettie Nilenge. (Collection Hasso Ahrens)

South West Africa football stars of 1975/1976: Controversial penalty kick: Gernot Ahrens against goalkeeper Bonnettie Nilenge. (Collection Hasso Ahrens)

South West Africa football stars of 1975/1976: Striker Bethuel Ace Tjirera cornered by Hasso Ahrens, the team captain of the white SWA side. (Collection Hasso Ahrens)

South West Africa football stars of 1975/1976: Striker Bethuel Ace Tjirera cornered by Hasso Ahrens, the team captain of the white SWA side. (Collection Hasso Ahrens)

South West Africa football stars of 1975/1976: The non-white SWA side at the historic 1975 game. (Collection Hasso Ahrens)

South West Africa football stars of 1975/1976: The non-white SWA side at the historic 1975 game. (Collection Hasso Ahrens)

South West Africa football stars of 1975/1976: The white SWA side 1975. (Collection Hasso Ahrens)

South West Africa football stars of 1975/1976: The white SWA side 1975. (Collection Hasso Ahrens)

At the invitation of Gondwana 36 former white and non-white players, trainers and officials of the two historic teams of South West Africa will get together for a reunion on 28.03.2014.

4 October 1975. Two football teams play a historic match in the Suidwes Stadion in Windhoek. It is the first time in the Apartheid era that a white and a non-white team compete against one another, each of them consisting of the top amateur players in the country. The team captains shake hands, a conciliatory gesture. This match is about honour. At the invitation of Gondwana 36 former players, trainers and officials of the two historic teams will get together for a reunion tonight (28-3-2014). Both teams will turn up in almost full strength. Some members have already passed away. The others are travelling to Windhoek from all over the country, from Tsumkwe, Otavi, Swakopmund, Keetmanshoop... two of them even from South Africa. They will clink glasses and recall various scenes from the match which ended in a three-all draw. Some of the referee’s decisions were highly controversial. Now the players are much older and wiser, the referee is attending the reunion, and Namibia has been independent for 24 years. Remember those days? Separate entrances were still in place at the Suidwes Stadion (today’s Hage Geingob Stadium). Non-white spectators, accounting for two thirds of the total number of spectators and thus the majority, were directed to the southern part of the stadium, whites to the opposite end. Among them 15-year-old sports enthusiast Mannfred Goldbeck. He walked the long way from his home to the stadium because he wanted to be part of the historic match – even though his father had forbidden him to go. Today Mannfred Goldbeck is the Managing Director of the Gondwana Collection. It was his idea to arrange a reunion of his former football heroes. Almost 40 years later, after the end of Apartheid, in an independent Namibia. “Our cultural diversity is a source of strength for Namibia”, Mannfred Goldbeck says. “It is also a very important component of Gondwana’s recipe for success. Same as gender equality. With this reunion we want to highlight that, especially now as the general elections are approaching and also against the background of the controversy about the equestrian monument.” The reunion in the rustic atmosphere of the Gondwana Shebeen not only brings the veterans of 1975/76 together. It may well be for the first and last time that so many personalities who have left their mark on the football scene during the last 40 years are found attending the same party. The Namibian Women’s National Football Team and Global United FC have also accepted the invitation with enthusiasm. Global United FC is a non-profit association by international football stars that supports social climate protection. And on Saturday, 29 March, the players of the 1975/76 sides will show off their abilities, possibly a little rusty, at the Ramblers 5-a-side old boys tournament in Pionierspark. They will haul out their football boots for the match at 17:45 ahead of the day’s top game between the Old Boys Invitational (former Namibian top players) and Global United FC, featuring former Namibia international and German First Division professional Collin Benjamin, Germany ex-international Olaf Marschall and Ireland ex-international Terry Phelan. A highlight that cannot be missed!

Date: 28. and 29.03.2014

Place: Windhoek

Contact:
Inke Stoldt
PR Officer
Tel +264 61 230066
Fax +264 61 251863
Gondwana Collection Namibia
PO Box 80205, Windhoek, Namibia
42 Nelson Mandela Avenue, Klein Windhoek


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