Gor Mahia Fans on tenterhooks but must remain calm
Gor Mahia fans are the most colourful in kenya and are one of most interesting aspects in the Kenya premier league. So colourful that Kenya tourism officials suggest visiting City Stadium to visiting tourists.
Being passionate about a club is something that most Kenyans cannot relate to. Most Kenyans who like football are pretend football fans following teams like Man U and Chelsea. They therefore cannot relate to the roller coaster what Kogalo and Ingwe fans go through on a weekly basis. The so called premier league fan does not really lose sleep when his team loses a match. Today he ,might support Chelsea and tomorrow he might support Coventry City. These are the kind of fans who will look incredulously at Kogalo fans when fracas ensues, while failing to acknowledge that football fans the world over are the same.
For Gor Mahia fans it is especially a tense time because twice in the last three years, the club has come within a whisker of winning the league only to falter on the last day of the season. The prospect of a repeat in 2013 has left some Kogalo fans on tenterhooks. They simply cannot deal with another disappointment. What this means is that from time to time, the fans might loose their poise
Fans can be a crucial element in the club’s campaign acting as the 12th man. But a tense fan base can also have the opposite effect. This is true all over the world and is not unique to Kogalo fans. In fact players like Okoth “Gattuso” who claim that they cannot play for Gor Mahia because the fans are too demanding, yet aspire to play professional football in Europe are deceiving themselves. If you cannot survive the pressure at Gor Mahia then you do not stand a chance in Europe where the fans are just as passionate but turn out in much larger numbers even in lower leagues like Sweden and Denmark. And these fans will have very little patience for a Kenyan player. The pressure from European fans is immense. A player who can thrive at Kogalo has an excellent chance of succeeding in Europe because they will be used to playing under pressure.
What is needed now from Kogalo fans is for them to offer whole-hearted support to the team. Get behind the players, cheer them and life their spirits even when the team is down. Results will not always be positive but if the fan base stays with the players, and shows patience, results will be better.
Secondly, the fans must control their emotions and avoid putting the club in a position where they might be banned from stadia or even worse loose points. In Awendo last week, it was clear that SoNy players caused the abandonment by assaulting the match officials.
Sony players accost referee
But it must be said that Kogalo fans did not acquit themselves well when they followed SoNy Fans into the pitch. However Kogalo fans collected ample photographic evidence to show that SoNy players did indeed assault the match officials, thus negating the conspiracy by KPL and match officials who tried to claim that neither team caused the bandonment. This is the kind of support the team will need in the last 8 games of the league.
If Zdravko Logarusic was still here today, he would say that in these last 8 games: ” The club now needs fans who can support the team and think at the same time. The fan in the picture below clearly was not doing that.
Aside from calming down on the terraces, fans especially travelling fans should accord themselves peacefully when they are away from the stadium. Scenes such as the the Muthurwa fiasco should be avoided at all costs.
Credit must also go to players like Jerim Onyango above, Moses Odhiambo, Bob Ogolla and previously Logarusic who have taken it upon themselves to calm down the passionate fans. SoNy players could learn something from them.
Let the fans channel their passion towards supporting the team through hell or high water. Through bad games and good games.
wololo yayeee, kumbe thats why i have been seeing odieros’ on the pitch.
i still thnk that it’s the ec who have the biggest influence to fan behaviour and on this matter i blame them 100%.
what have they done about it so far –
handkerchief -> marks 3%.
this matter i do believe can never be solved by police alone;
1.for the reason that they will never be enough personel.
2. fans who are out to cause chaos will do so wether there are police or not for the mere fact that they get away with it match after match. you have read on this blog fans who believe that the issue of providing security is up to them.
my take: education.
change of culture is best done thru education.eg, FGM has best been managed thru’ education rather than by arrests. there is a law that bans fgm but so what, the culture perstisted anyway, but the moment education was brought then the results have had a far more reaching effect today.
the fan who causes distruction basically does not grasp how what he does affects gor financially. all the ec needs to do is to have broadcasts during half-time to coach these rowdy fans on this matter(better than playing lingala music). hire or get one practising PR person who can deliver this massage effectively in 10min. there are a thousand ways to do this easily.
advantage:
all ur target audience will be present.
and yes i can deliver this message and for free!
do this and fan violence will be history and see gor finances grow ten-fold.
Thank u admin for your article. I hope the message gets to all fans.
The impression given by the picture of the fan is that He is a Gor Mahia Fan…. Let it be noted that that Fan was a sony fan who accosted the ref over Calabar’s Goal in Awendo!!!!
@villager: i beg to differ on your assumption that these chaotic fans or fans in general subscribe to this site.
most of these chaotic fans are generally low income cadre, they have been known to cause chaos inorder to rob other fans and are generally known for forcing free entry. is this the kind of person you expect to be browsing this site? my comment is not meant to look down on these chaotic fans but with the kind of characters i have seen around the stadiums i thnk i make a good assessment.
my point is that someone in (self)employment will generally be less inclined to cause chaos on the simple fact that such a person has somethng to lose if arrested. alot of these (self)employement fans do not have access to internet leave alone the hooligan type. most of the fans will not get this message.
This is true,this advice shud be chanelled to fans in the stadium thats where 86% are, not on facebook.
W.Obwaka,Oluoch”Lule”,Sianga, “Makamu”Oduor kindly note our beloved GM is going thru unacceptable vices, see the previous article.
2 those who have the audacity 2 contemptuously refer 2 u as “so called legends”,I say TELL us the true legends of GM.
Am sure that at the right time u will declare ua candidature that’s why i have started the awareness that ex-legends have the ability 2 b officials.
But only RESTRUCTURED MEMBERSHIP & AN EC OF 4 OFFICIALS WILL SAVE GM FRM SUCH VICES.
C’MON LEGENDS
A well-written piece. We should note that safety starts and ends with us. You can’t tell me that no hooligan knows not the consequences of their actions. These guys even know that apart from the 2m fine we now have to pay another 750k. The thing is that they don’t feel the pinch. Otherwise if they did they would desist from such behaviour. So the EC, players, TB and all fans we should be patient for the next 8 games.on leadership let those who want to lead declare themselves. We don’t want the problem we have in our politics where one says that they have heard the cries of the electorate and decided to thrown their hat in the ring, despite their reservations. Let the best brains come out irrespective of whether they are legends or not
matching on…….
fans have a responsibility to support the club and that support cannot be through hooliganism.Real fans must reform to avoid unnecessary penalties to the club.