What is a good event without people to witness it? More pointedly, what is a good football showpiece minus ecstatic and cheering rival fans in the spectator stands?

And do you want to know why a football stadium that stages two opposing teams with a total of just twenty two players on the pitch also has space to accommodate tens of thousands of fans? 

The reason is because fans are the heartbeat–the most important part of the team. 

Even with this, nobody seemed prepared for the massive turn-out of home fans at the on-going African Nations Championships (CHAN 2016).

A rousing kick-off

"Personally I got surprised at the opening ceremony, but happily because I didn’t expect the stadium to be that full,” recalls Anita Kivuye Kwizera, the acting Vice President of the Amavubi Fans Club:

"Every seat was booked, but outside thousands of fans still struggled to buy tickets.”

Kwizera was right to be surprised. Even as a member of Amavubi Fans Club executive committee since 2012, and as a fans club leader for her club side, APR FC before that, she had under-estimated the enthusiasm with which home fans would welcome the historical hosting of the tournament in Rwanda.

Getting the fans ready

The news about Rwanda hosting CHAN 2016 was first delivered by Confederation of African Football (CAF) president and acting FIFA president Issa Hayatou while in Rwanda in 2014 for the Under-18 soccer tournament. 

Unknown to many people, the Amavubi Fans Club, the body charged with mobilizing home support for the national football team – Amavubi had gone to work almost immediately: 

"We received the news warmly and immediately started to prepare ourselves as Amavubi Fans Club,” explains Kwizera. 

"We worked hand in hand with the ministry of local government, where our leaders and the district mayors helped us do mobilization. We went on different radios across the country mobilizing people. As you know, Rwandans love football and many Rwandans follow the game daily on their radios, so we utilized this avenue to disseminate information about CHAN,” she adds.

Claude Muhawenimana, the president of Amavubi Fans Club attributes the huge turn-out of home fans at CHAN 2016 to two main issues; the club’s aggressive marketing and sensitization campaigns on local media, especially radio, and the sheer patriotism of Rwandans:

"Rwandans support their football team not just because of the entertainment value of watching them play, but also out of a sense of duty to their nation,” he explained. 

Working with district mayors and other administrators, they helped prop up the various fans clubs, teaching them skills like singing the national anthem and training cheer leaders. 

They also engaged local celebrities like musicians and beauty queens to endorse and promote the tournament. 

We are happy that women are now coming out to support and participate in football too.

"Seeing the President and First Lady at the opening ceremony, and again the First Lady at the second match involving Rwanda was a big morale booster for most Rwandans,” Muhawenimana contends, adding: 

"MINISPOC also put the lowest price for a ticket at Rwf 500, which was affordable to most ordinary Rwandans.” 

"Our players played so well in the first match and this was a good motivation for Rwandans to continue pouring into stadiums for subsequent matches. Even the other teams are showing us a nice game,” Kwizera chips in. 

"We have four stadiums for the tournament, and already many fans are travelling to Rubavu or Huye to watch other matches there and those from there are also coming to Kigali,” she adds. 

Sadly, Kwizera is the only woman in the administrative structures of the Amavubi Fans Club, which boasts a president, vice president, secretary general, and commissioners in charge of marketing, mobilization, logistics, treasury, and a few advisors. 

Her love for sports dates back to her high school days:

"I love sports in general. When I was still in high school I played basketball and karate. I wasn’t really into women’s games, although I can’t say I was a Tom Boy.”

She traces the history of the fans club to 1995, a year after the genocide:

"It started with different committees from the different local fans clubs, and it was one of the tools used to promote and symbolize reconciliation following the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi,” she explains. 

"My club, APR FC recommended me because I was already a leader of its fans club. I was recommended by the club executive and then voted by fans of my club to represent it at national level. You are recommended by your team to represent them in Aamavubi Fans Club because Amavubi is the national team which unites both players and fans from different clubs.

"Like our president is from Rayon Sports, myself I’m in APR, there are others from Police FC and FC Kiyovu and so on. Fans clubs are there to mobilize fans to attend soccer matches. So if I’m coming from APR FC, I’m the best person to convince other fans of the club to join the Amavubi Fans Club. 

"Normally clubs are like enemies because they are competing against each other, so being seen as different clubs coming together as fans of the national team symbolizes unity and reconciliation.”

Everybody is a fan!

All Rwandans that love football and love Rwanda can generally be referred to as fans, Kwizera explains. 

"We respect each and every one coming from the different clubs. 

In most cases these fans already contribute in one way or another to the welfare of their clubs, so it would be a burden to again contribute to the Amavubi Fans Club. 

So if one is already recognized as a fan by their club, we in turn recognize you as a fan of the Amavubi.”

Yet still, being a fan usually comes with benefits: "There is a small number of fans which in Kinyarwanda we call abashyushya rugamba – the ones that paint their faces and lead the cheering but they don’t have the capacity to pay to watch matches. 

We lobby FERWAFA and MINISPOC and usually they support us with over 100 free tickets whenever there is a match,” Kwizera further explains. 

Of course, the vast majority have to foot their own bills to attend a match involving the Amavubi. 

"They have to pay to support their national team because if they are buying tickets, the players will be better motivated and besides, what you are buying is happiness, just like you spend money when you go out because you love what you are going to do, so we love football and we have to spend on it.”

Keeping the discipline

The fact of the huge turn-out aside, the other issue worthy of note is the near-meticulous discipline of homes fans so far, in a game that has its fare share of hooliganism and violence. 

Here, Kwizera gives the credit where it’s due: 

"I really thank the Rwandan government which has always emphasized discipline and order. There is security and there is police everywhere. If I’m supporting football it doesn’t mean everyone is doing the same. You have to respect and give peace to those who are not into football.

Even at the mobilization stage and on the radios we always emphasize discipline. There is at least a police officer in each of our various committees, right up to FERWAFA, and these officers are in charge of discipline. We tell them what we are planning, and they go and put in place the necessary measures to secure the safety of each match venue.”