From the Hammock : Football not among “things of note” in EAC

But in consolation even reclusive North Korea finally opened up; albeit only briefly. Misery is being subjected to the hooh hah of football and The World Cup when you don’t care what the hell it is about. I mean, what really? You wonder where the sentiment comes from. I once had friends who would swear their lifetime allegiance to Argentina and Arsenal. Conte was a fanatic of Manchester United and Italy, but secretly he hoped Argentina was a better team. Conte’s real name was Tusiime Anthony and he was a staunch catholic too, he had never been to England or Argentina but hoped to someday make the trip; somehow! East African sport is bizarre; when people from far off places hear that football is popular here they never realize that our interest in it is only limited to watching it on TV. And even that is watching the football played in Europe and not here Africa. But Football is important because for many it is the only chance to see and watch television in their lives. When the World Cup happens, the anticipation it carries equals that of Christmas. In Kigali we have businesses starting out with a television set, a bunch of benches and a shack nearby a market. These in most cases provide the only real leisure time activity of many in the country. A football match between Arsenal and Manchester United is much more anticipated than even the budget and Independence Day ceremonies combined. On FM radio stations Competitions are held, draws, raffles and picks, prizes, awards, airtime and “so much more.” Most Rwandans do not care who the minister of the environment or public service is but they know the entire line up of Arsenal and Barcelona. There are very stark contrasts and fortunes between the football being watched and that being played around here. I have met The lumpen, a self styled expert on English football. In the pub they call him Arsenal. For those of you who are wondering what Arsenal, it is an English football club managed by a Frenchman who is an economist and I got those facts spewing from the lumpen in less than three minutes of acquaintance. Maybe we love to watch the football quite a lot on television so much that we have no time to play the sport or go to the stadiums to support those who play it or we have despaired from the administrators of the sport that we don’t care what they do anymore. When Tanzania hosted Brazil in a friendly in Dar Salaam before the Brazilians flew to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, and lost the match by 5:1, the Tanzanian players were congratulated for the loss by all sundry in the country. They were expected to lose by a larger margin. And I won’t tell you about CECAFA as you will forget it by the end of this paragraph anyway. There is no platform of success that East Africa is renown for in competitive football, the biggest export from the region so far is a certain Kenyan aptly known as Mariga; “many sheep,” who plays for Inter Milan. Perhaps the West Africans have been much adventurous in football, but they also remain whipping boys when prestige stares them in the face. Football really is an extension of our politics where the most powerful people in the game are also the same in any other sector of the economy. And if politicians in Africa are corrupt; as advertised; yet they are the rule makers, just imagine how far more corrupt the football administrators are. Many like the politicians above them in the pecking order of “people of note” have no or limited expertise, experience and skill. And like other sectors of many economies in east Africa, it is a waste, pure carelessness. A mess. But for its mess, football is an outlet. In the days of dictators and liberators in east Africa and indeed on the entire continent, The World Cup was the only event where east Africans got a chance to see a TV. Personally, as an eight year old in the early 90s, I watched Italia in the middle of Lake Victoria on an island known as Kibbanga. On this island there was no telephone, no radio, health centre or even a road but somehow we were able to watch the World Cup. It was our only contact with the other world. Also football enables fair competition and debate to take place, the kind that is unheard of in politics, business and legislature. The good thing about being a journalist in Africa is that when there’s a mess in sport the coverage is freed of other restraints in the mainstream media about politics and its cousins. The mess is much more scrutinized than politics because it attracts less serious people. “People OF note,” are too cool to be bothered by politics and crucially the donors are not interested in your sports, you may run, walk, sleep or kick about, as you want. Donors are talking about serious things like human rights, world peace, saving endangered animals, climate change and capacity building. Football or sport IS way down the pecking order of “things of note.” A sports reporter will therefore uncover details of a fraud scheme in football and they are quite aplenty and expose it without sanctions and limits from big brother. As such, there are resignations in sports and some form of procedure is followed. In politics there’s limited scope of unearthing a fraud and corruption. News comes at its time. In these circumstances of relative freedom to compete on the pitch, east African football administrators outdo each other in competing for attention, sympathy, success, prestige and good old bragging rights amongst human beings. For its sheer fun, try watching a match between APR FC and Rayon Sport in Kigali; YOU will enjoy it immensely. If you happen not to be a football fan, at least the traffic dilemma in the city and Kwa’Rubangura that day will be less congested and so you will get home earlier. But if east African football is misery, beyond misery is being a North Korean football fan or even worse national team player. In that country they have never watched a live World Cup match or any other live programme on their lone television station. So last week’s decision to show North Korea against Portugal was a blessing. But it was a classical Case of Typical wrong timing.North Koreans used to seeing only positive news about their country were shocked when their first opportunity to watch live television ended in disaster with Portugal humiliating the dear brother leader’s team seven nothing. Television and the World Cup were immediately halted and positive news restored. donuwagiwabo@gmail.com