Where are Nigerian football fans?

May 24, 2014

Segun Agbede

Whenever I travel round the country with SuperSport to cover the GLO Premier League, I ask myself this question over and over again. Where are the fans? I still have vivid memories of packed stadiums in the 70s and 80s. Today the majority of the premier League games are played in front of scanty crowds. Apart from league games in Kano, Kaduna and Aba, match day attendance on a regular basis has been nothing to write home about. The Week One game between Sunshine Stars and Enyimba in Akure should have been a full house but for the peculiar decision of the authorities to lock the fans out. I will revisit that scenario later in my column.

The biggest culprits when it comes to not showing up in the stadiums are Port Harcourt fans. Why this happens, I don’t know. Port Harcourt has two well-established Premier League clubs – Sharks and Dolphins – and their fans are some of the most knowledgeable in the land, yet that isn’t enough to get them out to the stadium in numbers.

The League Management Company introduced double headers into the league a couple of months ago, whereby two league matches would be played back to back live on SuperSport. This laudable and epoch-making initiative was launched in Port Harcourt at the Sharks Stadium. Sharks hosted newly-promoted Crown, while Dolphins hosted Sunshine Stars. Both matches were absolute crackers with Sharks starting to show the form that now has them sitting pretty at the summit of the league. Indeed, I will never tire to sing the praises of their coach Gbenga Ogunbote, who has turned the fortunes of Sharks round in such a radical manner. Sharks were rooted to the bottom of the for 13 of 38 weeks last season before his appointment. Since then, Ogunbote has managed to pull off a minor miracle, not only did he save Sharks from relegation, he finished in mid-table above his former club, Sunshine Stars. Dolphins also beat Sunshine Stars in the second match, for a good day in the office for the Port Harcourt sides. The great irony is that such good football was played out to an almost empty stadium. The Sharks Stadium is small to begin with and to barely be able to populate it with fans is surely cause for concern for all stakeholders in the game.

This World Cup year and not only has Nigeria qualified but the domestic league is represented by a healthy five-man contingent. This in itself should project the competition in a much more positive light with the fans.

It is an established fact that the average Nigerian football fan is besotted with the English Premier League in particular and European football in general. We are not to be blamed because let’s face it the EPL is a global franchise and phenomenon. It’s in our face, whichever direction we turn. The top European teams also spend millions of pounds in the off-season seeking to grow their brand and source new sponsorship opportunities. I have friends who have dropped everything to watch the UEFA Champions League final, the Battle of Madrid in Lisbon tonight. If I was able to teleport like Captain James Kirk of the Enterprise in Star Trek, I would be there myself!

There is a school of thought which says, since we kick off our league games at the same time as the EPL, it negatively affects fan turnout. This argument has merit as a fan might prefer to stay home to watch Arsenal the play Spurs than go to watch his local team at the stadium. Even in England, broadcasters don’t show 3pm kick-offs in order to get the fans to the stadium.

However, that line of reasoning might be a trifle simplistic. The challenges of getting our fans back into the stadium are much more complex than mere kick- off timing. In my opinion, there is a total disconnect between the domestic l clubs and their fans. Like some other institutions in Nigeria, it has weakened and atrophied over time.

Going back to the Sunshine versus Enyimba game in Akure, the club missed a golden opportunity to connect with their fans. Being a marquee game, there was a measure of bad blood between the sides. Akure was where Enyimba were soundly beaten by Sunshine at the tail end of last season. A defeat that extinguished Enyimba’s faint hopes of winning the title, while conversely ensuring Sunshine Stars league status. I saw hundreds of fans locked out at half time. The stadium was only about two- thirds full and the most logical thing would have been to let the fans in. Full stadiums are what we crave.

The non-identification of fans with their club and by extension the playing staff is a major problem. Why would I spend my hard-earned money going to the stadium to watch players I have never heard of?