As Zimbabwe soccer-loving fans brace up for the return of the country’s apex soccer league competition, the Castle Larger Premier Soccer League, in a few weeks’ time, many would be pondering if they will be going to watch the local league teams play.
A worrying trend has been unfolding in the local game as more people shun the local football stadia. Many reasons for the football apathy have been forwarded but there seems to be no sign of any attempts to bring back soccer fans to watch Zimbabwe’s local football stars.
One is then tempted to try and take an objective, critical and analytical look at the local football landscape. One would seek to understand the various dynamics obtaining in the game of football globally and locally.
There are plenty reasons why people go to watch football matches and these are the very same reasons that cause people to shun the game, if those reasons are not promoted and protected. The same soccer crowd-pull factors are the same soccer fans flight-push factors.
Many reasons constitute the essence of football in as far as the soccer fan is concerned. Some of these include the rivalry in the games, the talent on display, the match day experience as a solution to the need for recreation and leisure activities, the following and making of history in the game and the fight for the title or against relegation. The suspense, the intrigue and emotions associated with the various soccer results, among many other elements found in football actually drive the crowds in some direction, coming in or leaving the game.
Before we deeply look into one of them, let us look at the fundamentals first. Football in general is regarded and proven as the most popular sport the world over, and Zimbabwe is no exception.
There is no denying or disputing the fact that football by its nature attracts the crowds. Be it at a local school, at a local neighbourhood derby clash, at a junior league or lower division derby or a top teams clash. Naturally football is a drawcard.
Call it passion for the game.
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This then highlights the fact that there is deep-rooted and ageless passion around the sport. Already before any fixture is announced the football product has takers. Never mind which part of the world you are in, one thing remains constant, the passion for the game by fans is a given. People love football and will pay or do anything for their respective football identity.
The passion for football has no age limit. You will see a five or ten-year-old child already following the game and from the other end a, 60, 70 or 80-year-old will engage you in a serious soccer debate — demonstrating that people do have the passion for the game as a baseline. The love for the game is not in dispute nor is it questioned. But why are Zimbabwean soccer lovers not attending local soccer matches?
Today we will look at one of the fundamental lifeblood elements of football, and that is the match fight in the local game. When bitter rivals face-off in a local match, that is when you expect to see fireworks in terms of the tension, the suspense, the rivalry, the fierce action and of course the goals to signal that the two teams cannot take lightly losing to the other.
Gone are the days we last saw the rivalry being exhibited in the local game. It feels like a friendly match when the local soccer giants face off. Where is the bite, the anger, the cruelty and the disappointment of losing to a rival? We don’t see that anymore. The rivalry starts from the coaches, the players and collectively the club institutions. Soccer fans want to see that match fight.
The rivalry should be exhibited way before the 90 minutes of action on the pitch. This involves even the comments given by the respective coaches ahead of a fixture. Coaches actually have a role to also package and sell their forthcoming games. It is not only about managing your team into a fixture.
Coaches please raise the expectations, raise the anticipation levels. Give us subtle hints and generate some suspense from the crowds. Some controversy can also help. But local coaches are gentlemen, they don’t want to raise dust, yet the dust is what people will want to come and support or oppose at the match venue come match day.
This rivalry generation and amplification also applies to the players. Players can also be seen or heard speaking tough and engaging in some mind games.
Fans need personal duels identified and amplified ahead of games. If there is a deadly striker facing off against the league’s best defender, let that rivalry be spoken about and fans generating high levels of anticipation and tension ahead of a fixture.
Give us the rivalry, not the gentlemen’s 90 minutes encounters. Fans love the fierce rivalry. So coaches and players please deliver that.
Local soccer can borrow from how the famous WWE wrestling product has managed to draw the crowds made up of both young and old fanatics. Check how they leverage the rivalry element to prop up their crowd numbers.
Fans want that rivalry, the intrigue, the suspense, the unforeseen surprise element. The soft gentlemen’s approach to a competitive sport like football will see the game lose more and more fans to other sporting disciplines or activities which deliver these elements.
There is a bold thick line between respecting your opponents as human beings under civilisation, but competitive sport rides on holy hate, holy anger, holy cruelty and holy ruthlessness as key elements which actually help the sport package itself as an attractive proposition to a soccer fan who wants to enjoy a game of football.
Bring back the rivalry in the local game. That rivalry will be imparted onto the fans and they will come to back you up from the terraces. The rivalry is contagious and can be transmitted from one’s favourite player, coach and club to the terraces.
Football crowds are not necessarily drawn by the dollar value of the entry ticket, but by the soft attraction elements of the game. The match rivalry is one of them.
- Joseph Nkani writes in his personal capacity as a marketing and public relations consultant and football analyst.
