Football is back, but the twelfth player is missing
The Botswana Football League ( BFL) action resumes this week, following a protracted 18 month suspension stemming from the Covid - 19 pandemic. The resumption of the elite league is expected to jumpstart the local sports economy that has been barely kept alive by national teams that have impressed at competitions like the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where the national athletics team managed to win the country’s second Olympic bronze medal courtesy of the 4x400m team.
However, there is no use in getting excited about local sporting activities being opened up albeit through phases. This is because local supporters are among the ficklest in the world. Soon enough all the hype and pomp of the sporting industry opening up will be over and fans will suddenly stop going to stadiums to supposedly support their beloved teams.
Just like a child who gets tired of a new toy, local fans will abandon their so- called football teams and settle for watching the English Premier League or PSL in the comfort of their homes or drinking hole.
This pattern of behaviour has been repeated so many times amongst local sports supporters. They simply do not deserve live sports, especially if it’s home brewed.
Prior to the Covid- 19 striking the unsuspecting world economy, local supporters had already abandoned or deserted stadiums, especially in the southern part of the country, where there is a lot of economic activity. There are rare cases in which popular football brands like Township Rollers and Extension Gunners pull their legions of fans to stadiums but they too tend to struggle with support in some cases. So worse was the situation that players could be heard communicating and calling for the ball during some live low tier games.
Furthermore, elite league teams that come from outside Gaborone have had it worse. Nevertheless, it is not only the fans that are at fault in this matter. The BFL product leaves a lot to be desired. Local football simply does not have crowd pulling power. There is no pomp, nor fanfare. Supporters are not engaged in any exciting competitions that make their football experience that much nicer.
There are no prices to be won during matchday, the product is utterly generic and archaic. Furthermore, the quality of the live coverage on local broadcast leaves a lot to be desired. This means that even the television feed would be a hard sell if international broadcasters were to express interest in showing local games. Meanwhile, banning the sale of alcohol from stadiums during live football games remains one of the dumbest and utterly misguided ideas in the history of local sports.