SA football fans take the cake

Limba Mupetami
A week ago I was fortunate enough to be invited to the launch of the eighth edition of the Carling Black Label Cup in Johannesburg.

The derby between Soweto's finest - Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates - will take place on 27 July.

When these two clubs meet you know it will be the derby of all derbies, as we have witnessed over the years.

The cup launch was nothing like nothing I had experienced in my career. The vibe, the set-up and just the general ambience was fantastic.

Prim and proper, the South Africans don't leave anything to chance when it comes to organising football events. Organisers even flew in former Arsenal striker Ian Wright all the way from England to be part of the event.

That was something else. But one thing that stood out for me was the fans at the launch. The colourful, passionate and eccentric fans donned Buccaneer and Amakhosi colours.

Clubs in South Africa have found their niche off the field - their fans. These guys take their job seriously. They relish being '12th-men' and task themselves with giving the players that extra oomph.

I got the chance to meet two of Orlando Pirates' biggest fans, Mgijimi and Good Enough Sithole. Mgijimi is some sort of juju man who is supposed to bring the team luck, as he speaks to the ancestors and blows white powder in the air. Good Enough, on the other hand, wears a wig and dress. This is his signature look and he cannot be missed.

And then you have the Chiefs' fans, with their oversized goggles and decorated miners' helmets or 'makarapa'. They are experts with vuvuzelas in their hands. This was my highlight.

Mind you, this was just a launch and the fans were an integral part of it. Now just imagine the dynamics on game day.

Firstly, I have never been to a Chiefs or Pirates match. I only see the teams play on TV. And each time the atmosphere in the stadium looks like one could have an out-of-body experience.

Sometimes you will see supporters eating bread to indicate that the opposition is their “daily bread”, opening a Bible in search of divine intervention or carrying a homemade coffin to indicate that their team is about to “bury” the opposition.

This is what football in South Africa is made of and these are of course some of the things we can learn to integrate into the Namibia Premier League. We just have press conferences here, with extolling and illustrating the role of the fans. Honestly, we don't want to see CEOs and to hear long boring speeches. We want to hear the fans speak. We want to see them at launches.

Surely if we have supporters' clubs, at some point we must see the supporters.

At the launch, the supporters were treated to drinks and food. With perks like this who would stay home to watch a game? We are struggling to pull spectators to matches in Namibia, so why not then just strengthen the supporters' clubs.

Find a niche and run with it. Let's develop our own traditions. Let's make football fun, because at the end of the day, football is played for others to enjoy.

As much as a club needs players to compete, it should be mandatory that they also have a certain number of supporters to register. We are tired of going to deadbeat matches.

The NPL should definitely find something to brag about and I think creating matches around fans is the way to go, so when they arrive, you know for a fact that it's going to be lit!



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Namibian Sun 2024-03-28

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Katima Mulilo: 19° | 37° Rundu: 17° | 33° Eenhana: 18° | 33° Oshakati: 20° | 31° Ruacana: 19° | 33° Tsumeb: 17° | 29° Otjiwarongo: 16° | 28° Omaruru: 18° | 31° Windhoek: 17° | 28° Gobabis: 17° | 28° Henties Bay: 16° | 19° Wind speed: 24km/h, Wind direction: S, Low tide: 10:54, High tide: 04:57, Low Tide: 22:58, High tide: 17:16 Swakopmund: 15° | 17° Wind speed: 29km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 04:55, Low Tide: 22:56, High tide: 17:14 Walvis Bay: 16° | 22° Wind speed: 33km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 04:54, Low Tide: 22:56, High tide: 17:13 Rehoboth: 18° | 29° Mariental: 22° | 32° Keetmanshoop: 21° | 34° Aranos: 21° | 31° Lüderitz: 15° | 29° Ariamsvlei: 23° | 34° Oranjemund: 15° | 21° Luanda: 27° | 30° Gaborone: 20° | 32° Lubumbashi: 17° | 24° Mbabane: 15° | 23° Maseru: 12° | 28° Antananarivo: 16° | 27° Lilongwe: 17° | 29° Maputo: 20° | 28° Windhoek: 17° | 28° Cape Town: 17° | 23° Durban: 21° | 25° Johannesburg: 18° | 28° Dar es Salaam: 26° | 32° Lusaka: 18° | 30° Harare: 15° | 31° Currency: GBP to NAD 23.93 | EUR to NAD 20.5 | CNY to NAD 2.62 | USD to NAD 18.97 | DZD to NAD 0.14 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.33 | EGP to NAD 0.39 | KES to NAD 0.14 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.74 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.8 | RUB to NAD 0.2 | INR to NAD 0.23 | USD to DZD 134.21 | USD to AOA 832.63 | USD to BWP 13.71 | USD to EGP 47.35 | USD to KES 130.98 | USD to NGN 1415.13 | USD to ZAR 18.97 | USD to ZMW 24.77 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index 73909.5 Up +0.41% | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1516.02 Down -0.13% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 12981.98 Up +0.34% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 28224.37 Down -2.87% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - 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Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 207.21/OZ UP +0.75% | Copper US$ 3.97/lb DOWN -0.0032 | Zinc US$ 2 443.40/T DOWN -0.53% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 87.13/BBP UP +0.86% | Platinum US$ 903.17/OZ UP +0.93%