Shame on BPL, fanatics

The Monitor Editor | Tuesday February 22, 2022 06:00

A choice of the venue was questioned as thousands of supporters thronged the 8,000-capacity venue just less than an hour before the kick-off time. The long queues formed outside the stadium as many supporters had opted to buy tickets on the match day. By the kick-off time at 4pm, a crowd of football lovers was trapped outside the arena as tickets had been sold out.

A commotion started between the fans and the security personnel. With the ratio in favour of the impatient football fans, the tussle led to fans pushing the gate open, forcing their way into the stadium. Following the event, Botswana Football League chairperson, Nicholas Zakhem condemned the supporters for handling themselves 'dishonourably' on match day. Also, we found it shocking that the BPL only finds fault in the supporters without pointing a finger at themselves.

This already casts doubt into whether the fact-finding mission on what led to an almost stampede would be impartial. The organisers of the game including the two clubs and the BPL should have done better in preparing for the game. The hype has been there leading up to match day and all should have expected a huge number of supporters would attend, given both teams including Zakhem’s GU had already sold many tickets, hence the need to be ready for all fan arrivals, particularly the last-minute buying ones.

The moment it was announced a day before the game that it would not be televised, it meant more effort should have been made to cater for the country’s elite sporting event. Sport has been hard hit by COVID-19 and we need to do all that is possible to bring it back to its feet.

One of the ways to do so is to encourage fans to go to stadiums and watch football. But we disappoint even those new to going to live games as they would now view it as a dangerous undertaking.

We call on those involved in football to make the stadiums to be habitable and attractive for people to start going to games. There is a plan in motion to introduce alcohol to stadiums and that should find us well organised as we know that could also bring its problems. We need to have robust processes in place like selling tickets strictly away from the venue and not sell any on game day.

We also call on Batswana to behave better no matter the circumstances. Pushing each other and gates and also invading the pitch is very wrong. We do not want a replica of South Africa's April 11, 2001, Ellis Park tragedy here in Botswana.