In a bid to support football and other related sports like most Ugandans have done in the past, from when football was broadcast both on television and radio in the eighties, many Ugandans have followed the ‘attractive and entertaining’ game played by Europeans, leaving our country and club football to go into oblivion.
As a patriotic African and a young journalist in Uganda, this to me raises a big concern as to whether we Africans should support European clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barcelona, among others.
In a research carried out in 2010 in Uganda, Man-U and Arsenal had four million fans out of a population of 35 million compared to our own local clubs SC Villa and Kampala Capital City Authority [KCCA ] which had one million; something very embarrassing!
So, for professional purposes I tried to find out why and how this was happening in Uganda. Later, I discovered the reasons and I would like to share them with the readers.
In their minds, many Africans find their football attractive and entertaining; European football changes their lives through betting and Ugandan football is corrupt, tribal and less attractive. To me, these reasons are somehow reasonable but not satisfactory.
In the 70s when Ugandan football both at national and club level was at its peak, with Uganda reaching the African Cup of Nations finals against Ghana in 1979 that we eventually lost 2-0 in Accra with the likes of Phillip Omondi, Polly Ouma, Tom Lwanga, the country was on the sports world map.
Then, back home, clubs like KCCA, Simba and SC Villa were dominating the CECAFA region, tussling out with other regional giants like Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards of Kenya; Young Africans and Simba of Tanzania; El Merriekh and Al Hilal of Sudan. During that time in Amin’s regime, it is believed that sports was supported by the government unlike today where the sports fraternity claws for support.
All said, it brings me back to the question of which European clubs an African should support; my opinion would be that Africans support clubs that in turn ‘support us’ in different ways like having African players on their payroll.
These players bring joy and revenue home, thereby improving the livelihoods of many in Africa, their ancestral continent.
These clubs include Chelsea, Swansea, Manchester City, Westham United, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Red Bull Salzburg and CSKA Moscow and have helped players like the Toure brothers, the Ayew brothers, Song, John Obi Mikel, Ibrahim Ssekagya, Mwesigwa, Drogba and Baba Rahma among others.
These, unlike ‘the mighty Man-U’ and Arsenal, have for the past four years not had an African player in their ranks but still command a big fan base in Africa!
This begs the question, which clubs should Africans supports?
