{"id":1443,"date":"2017-10-28T08:17:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T08:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/new_thereporter\/2017\/10\/28\/hooliganism-scare\/"},"modified":"2017-10-28T08:17:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T08:17:20","slug":"hooliganism-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/1443\/","title":{"rendered":"The hooliganism scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most prominent derby in the country\u2019s soccer calendar is a local version of el classico<\/em>. Every encounter of St. George FC and Coffee FC generates so much enthusiasm soccer craze reaches its peak. Last Sunday was no different. Supposedly the curtain raiser to the new football season, the Addis Ababa City Cup was also there for the asking, and three points. But this particular showdown was not only about soccer skills and team strategies. It was also about tension created by the rivalry between the fans of the two teams. Morning sport shows were calling for steps to avoid any hooliganism; the nearby watering holes were ordered to close.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But alas, like many things these days, it didn\u2019t take long for things to degenerate into scenes of rowdiness and the feared hooliganism. Live transmission on one TV station showed crowd trouble in the section known as \u2018Katanga<\/em>,\u2019 and in real time too. Some questioned the wisdom of airing those rowdy scenes arguing it is like giving legitimacy to the handful of troublemakers. But then, as bitter as the pill might taste, the public has also the right to know where things stand.  The irony of Sunday\u2019s crowd trouble was that there wasn\u2019t any on-pitch event, be it a bad refereeing decision or a hot-blooded faceoff between players of the rival times to make anyone\u2019s blood boil. It was troublemaking for the sake of troublemaking!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the actual game was one big, \u2018Oh My God!\u2019 episode. These are the best teams we could parade in public! A pity that our football has come to this! That wasn\u2019t the kind of football players making fifty, seventy, a hundred grand a month play! Yes, they make a hundred grand and even more than that! No wonder foreign players and coaches are buying their one way ticket to Addis. Something is not right about the way the whole thing is run! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The people at the helm of club leadership are politically charged and the last thing they know is football, so goes the gossip. Just for the record, we heard recently that a newly appointed director of a theater house was asked by the employees to watch plays to which he gave the answer of the century. \u201cI don\u2019t like plays.\u201d I wonder how many club leaders would have said \u201cI don\u2019t like soccer,\u201d if given the chance!  <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, there was one other thing last Sunday, during the live transmission they interrupted the game for some \u2018Breaking News.\u2019 Yes, we were shocked by the standard of our football; but it wouldn\u2019t t match our shock at hearing the supposedly \u2018Breaking News.\u2019 Look, whether we like it or not we are not basking in the sunshine these days. In fact, the darkening clouds are advancing on us and the last thing we can do is stir emotions. I think the media has a responsibility not to cross the red line when it reaches one. The \u2018Breaking News\u2019 appeared to be just that -going over the red line. God save us from actions which could push us to over the cliff!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Are we a soccer-crazy nation? How does a soccer-crazy nation act? Most of us seem more worried about the English Premier League than our own. Maybe, that\u2019s all about being soccer-crazy!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At the start was the week I was trying to navigate my way the rough a crowded Addis street. I came across a guy and he looked like Lucifer paid him a visit the other night.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the problem? Aren\u2019t you all right?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost!\u201d he said. Lost what!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnited lost.\u201d United lost! What the\u2026oh! You mean that United! The English Premier League club Manchester United has lost to a club considered to be minnows of the EPL at the weekend. And even after so many hours the guy was still licking his wounds.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So much airtime is given the English Premier League that one would think we were on piece of land of an empire where \u2018the sun never sets.\u2019 If something happened and there is no EPL, I wonder how many bank accounts would dry up. The EPL isn\u2019t about only football, it\u2019s about business. Surely sponsorship would dwindle to drips and drops. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Talking about home affairs once again, these days hooliganism worries us more than our football standard does. With tensions high and tempers on edge over a multitude of problems, the last thing we need is football hooligans going berserk. There have been nasty scenes during games; Scenes we couldn\u2019t brush aside and which, if unchecked, could prove the undoing of our football. What happened to the CCTVs so much was talked about? They should have been all over the place by now! Addis Ababa Stadium isn\u2019t even a stadium by modern standards. Is it that difficult to install a few cameras!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Look, we seem to have more sports journalists than any other particular field. There are some wonderful hosts you couldn\u2019t have enough of. But generally speaking, like our football, our soccer reporting and analysis leaves much to be desired. Many are accused of cut and paste journalism. During the days when internet was down the chill around sports programs showed on the quality of reporting. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have said and would say it again; the problem with English Premier League managers is they don\u2019t listen to our sports programs! Who do they think they are? Some untouchable royal family! Arsene Wenger has only himself to blame. He is being given detailed advice by our all-knowing sportscasters on the kind of strategy he should use. He has been advised who to sign up and who to give the boot. But the man is not listening! The fan who flashed the sign \u2018Wenger Out!\u2019 at the Addis Ababa Stadium a few months back said it all.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The players aren\u2019t listening, too! If Mesut Ozil wasn\u2019t sitting on his ears and listened to the advice of our sports media he could have scored an average of three goals a game! Ha! Well, many sports journalists, indeed, know which side of their bread is buttered. That is why there is so much EPL talk. Isn\u2019t it, all about business!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But I think more attention should be given to this hooliganism thing. Safety standards during matches both in Addis and in the regions should be upgraded. Ethnic abuses are thrown with impunity, and disturbing frequency, too. We can\u2019t act it isn\u2019t happening! Not while we\u2019re suffocating in such scary mess these days! Insulting players because of their ethnicity, or insulting their parents isn\u2019t only undisciplined but also dangerous. Remember the head butt of Zinedine Zidane son which floored that Italian player?  It is not still clear what he said to him. Some reports suggested it had to do something about his mother. We have heard of local players showering rival team members with insults, insults which could drive the most emotionless person to act like some Conan the Barbarian.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some people ask, \u201cWhy do we need so many stadiums? Aren\u2019t there pressing social problems that need more attention?\u201d Yes, there are. It should be simple. This nation has pressing priorities and football isn\u2019t that high on the agenda, peace and security is. If hooliganism tends to continue disrupting games either hold the games in empty stadiums or just abandon the whole thing until the air clears, if it does so anytime soon. Oh, they are putting up a sixty thousand seat stadium around the Bole area. Nice; at least the Bole crowd would find out that life is not only about ice creams. Ha! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And finally, one can\u2019t talk about the passage of Ethiopian football without mentioning Yidnekachew Tessema. How the sport misses him!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Contributed<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most prominent derby in the country\u2019s soccer calendar is a local version of el classico. Every encounter of St. George FC and Coffee FC generates so much enthusiasm soccer craze reaches its peak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1946,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-touch-and-go","7":"category-uncategorized"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}