The NFA Under 15 Youth League is shaping up as Tura Magic, Nick Eleven, Ramblers and Cymot SKW will compete to become the first NFA Under 15 champions after they qualified to the Top Four League after the final qualification round that took place last weekend.
The top two teams of each stream (Zebra and Oryx) qualified for the 2012 Top Four League while the remaining teams will play each other in a B League.
In the Top Four League the teams will play each other twice (home and away) while the six B-League teams will play each other once.
Action in both leagues will kick off this Saturday with Tura Magic and Nick Eleven involved in a Top Four encounter while all teams in the B League will take to the field.
The other Top Four U15 clash between Ramblers and SKW will take place during the week because both teams have tournament commitments this weekend.
Although a combination of the NFA Girls U15 and U17 team ended their campaign in the qualification with a win against Windhoek United, the team had to pull out of the league due to international commitments. The girls are currently touring Germany and could therefore not fulfill their fixtures.
In B League fixtures on Saturday, Arcadia and Windhoek United will face off at 09h25; Kaizen will take on Katsville at 10h50; and at 12h15 Mario Academy will take on Katutura Youth Association.
The Under 15 Youth League committee decided to go for this format instead of playing a knock out tournament to give the weaker teams more playing time the chairman of the league Rolf Beiter said.
Beiter added that the purpose of the U15 NFA League was to develop and keep players busy by playing as much as possible.
The chairman expressed his satisfaction with the behavior of the players and technical people involved in the league thus far.
“The players are well behaved and the sporting behaviour of the teams is encouraging. The coaches involved also seem to understand that in youth football it is not all about winning,” he said.
Beiter was also happy with the league’s facilities and match officials, saying the NFA referees always showed up, with the only blotch in the league being the dismissal of a few teams that failed to pitch.
The NFA Under-15 Youth League is available on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NfaU15Khomas