Whatever happened at Gusii Stadium on Sunday when Shabana FC hosted Gor Mahia in an FKF Premier League game must be condemned but it doesn’t represent a return to the dark old days of football hooliganism.
Predominantly, hooliganism in the Kenyan football scene had been a badge emblazoned in the shirts of Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards fans. And none shouldn’t be surprised at this since the two teams demand a huge following in the local scene; it’s the same badge and reason why Shabana FC has been drawn in the hooliganism debate. There is the tribal card, political inclination and of course the regions where the teams are based.
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While we have to acknowledge that hooliganism isn’t something that can be eradicated overnight, the scale of trouble now, compared to those experienced at the start of the new millennium, doesn’t bear comparisons; either in terms of the number of people involved or the level of organization.
Ask any ardent local football fan, in fact, and they will tell you the menacing presence of thugs’ intent on using football as a cover for causing trouble has never gone away. So the scenes witness at Gusii is a constant reminder to Football Kenya Federation that they shouldn’t be complacent when it comes to planning the ‘high risk’ games.
Tension had started rising even before the game and there should have been a proper security presence at the stadium. On Sunday, the first incident, before the game, took ages to be sorted. The bone of contention had been the place where Gor Mahia fans had been allocated to sit. I wondered whether a couple of visitor’s supporters had got into the wrong section of the ground, or whether the home fans had managed to get more tickets in the hope of starting trouble by sitting in the places designated for K’Ogalo.
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Fights in Gor Mahia and Shabana games in the league is not an uncommon but in a charged-up atmosphere those small incidents, like having opposing fans sit in areas where they are not allocated, can quickly escalate as other fans looking for trouble get involved.
The next step is usually an intervention by the police which can take it up another gear as innocent people get mistakenly drawn into the fray. But as witnessed in games this season, in most grounds, its evidently becoming clear that most of our police officers haven’t been training to handle football fans during trouble. And in most cases, the police have always started trouble themselves. They’ve roughed people before. And this lot includes the stewards who, in most incidents, have always sided with the home team and joined fans in roughing up opposing fans. There is need by the Federation to take these people through proper trainings of handling fans. You cant lob teargas in every provocation.
Security seemed unusually relaxed for such a big match. A lot of drunken fans with rungus, which were clearly captured by cameras, should have been turned away. And supporters were not searched properly going into the ground.
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Police are becoming less committed in handling crowd trouble, allowing well-known thugs to slowly return to football? In all games, home teams are expected to cater for security and these people mingle with their home fans almost on a weekly basis. We can’t have the same faces causing trouble in their home games without the consent of the police that watch over them on a daily basis.
Its becoming clear that the police are becoming an accomplice to hooliganism. Even away from the Gusii incident, there was an incident where a Migori Youth fan hit a referee and a police officer, but no one pursued that case. Such incidents set a very bad precedent on watching hooligans who will feed on such courage to cause mayhem.
While there has been noted improvement in stadium safety, the incident at Gusii is a reminder to the Football Kenya Federation that there is still a sizeable element who wish to use the game as an excuse for causing mayhem. They must seize this opportunity to ram home the message that they aren’t welcome. Serious sanctions should be meted on the perpetrators.
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(Image| The Standard Media)
