Faulty Football

Last Saturday afternoon, the Walias lost 2-0 to Mali in a first round qualifying match for the African Cup of Nations. The Addis Abeba Stadium was filled with spectators who had paid between 10 Br and 1,000 Br for tickets.

Most of these fans were doing their best to give support to their team; that was until it became clear that the Walias had lost any of the hope promised by Portuguese coach, Mariano Barreto, earlier on. But, we lost the game at home. The fact is that so did other African teams.

Didn’t the world acclaimed Brazil lose 7-1 to the Germans in their own country? Didn’t England fail to qualify for the second round of the World Cup? What is so unique about the defeat of the Walias?

At a time when the rest of the world is trying to coordinate support to stand by the side of our brothers and sisters in West Africa, and while the World Health Organisation (WHO) is warning that the virus could spread exponentially, it is unbelievable to hear a good number of Ethiopian football fans having the nerve to use the fatalistic virus to slander their guests.

This is horrendous and embarrassing. It gripped the country with shock and disgust. I was even ashamed to the point of the inability to restrain myself from commenting about our hopeless football.

Being a football fan has nothing to do with storming the pitch with plastic bottles, shouting insults. Words of slander do not show one’s affection towards the national squad. It just exposes one’s ignorance about the game, leave alone the spirit of winning and losing in any match.

Surely, football is not just about having the necessary physical fitness, technical ability and tactical competence. No amount of investment in the construction of new football fields and associated facilities can produce winning teams. It requires a lot more than that.

Coaches have an important role to play in shaping the attitudes of players. With the help of their colleagues, they can develop the minds of the players.

They can also substitute them. It needs no reminder that players play on behalf of the coaches.

Even then, the players may lose just the same. This does not make coaches any better than their successors or their predecessors.

Centuries have passed since football matches appeared for the first time. Be it in football or any other match, players aim to win the game in a given period of time.

But the minds of the players cannot be programmed only to win. There are always differences in the thought processes within their minds before making decisions like dribbling, passing, crossing or jumping high to head the ball. The decisions and their timing make all the difference. Minds have to be communicative and connected to each other.

A national team is made up of players coming from various club sides. The squad has to be considered as a team representing the country in all its faces.

Spectators may be happier if one or two of the national squad were to be selected from the team they support. But it should not make them feel unhappy if their favourites are not selected.

After all, this is a national team. And a national team should be supported by all and everybody, whether the players are selected from favourite teams or not.

It is a real pity that this narrow sentiment of club affinity transcends to identity, as revealed last year in Bahir Dar at the national sport festivity, where regional states were competing. This is also an attitude I happen to observe among political parties, whether locally or internationally.

The spirit of football should not be taken wrongly. After all, football is just a game, even if it is becoming a lucrative business in the developed world. The behaviour of some spectators last Saturday has no excuse.

Is it our first time to lose a game?

We should be ready to tolerate the next one in all probabilities.

Loss with the test of time is what we faced during the 1973/74 famine, which left us with a big scar of shame wherever we go in the world. It is sad that we forgot how the Nigerian contingent had thrown loaves of bread towards us, implying our inability to feed ourselves.

We should not be surprised if continental football officials take up the case for legal action, or if the president of the National Football Federation considers barring some misbehaving spectators from entering stadiums. I believe that the rival team deserves an apology.


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