Real supporters should pay to watch football

Sport
The Warriors of Zimbabwe will next Sunday trot onto the National Sports Stadium for their opening 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against the Lone Star of Liberia.

The Warriors of Zimbabwe will next Sunday trot onto the National Sports Stadium for their opening 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against the Lone Star of Liberia.

insidesport with MICHAEL KARIATI

Fans supporting the Warriors team during their Afcon qualifier against Malawi last year
Fans supporting the Warriors team during their Afcon qualifier against Malawi last year

This is a game which the Warriors must win at all costs to brighten their chances of making a fourth appearance at the African football showpiece and a second consecutive Nations Cup romance after the Gabon debacle.

It has been proven in African football that teams that win convincingly at home usually qualify for major international tournaments and the Warriors need everyone’s support to steamroll over the Lone Star.

Not only is a win needed but a glut of goals as well as the four team group – which includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Congo Brazzaville – could be decided on goal difference.

Fine, there are others who were not happy with the team selection and others who are opposed to Norman Mapeza being the national team coach – but this is a Zimbabwe national team which everyone must support irrespective of who is coaching the team, or who is playing for the side.

Those at the Zimbabwe Football Association should also see the light that the Green Machine of CAPS United finally saw and will maintain their gate charges at a modest and affordable $3 for the cheapest seat if they are to count on a huge crowd support for the locals.

There is no need for the experiment that CAPS United did in hiking the charge for the cheapest seat to $5 only for them to fall back to $3 when crowd attendances dropped significantly.

The $3 payment is the route that Zifa should follow if the Warriors are to maximise on crowd support while at the same time the football authorities get revenue to help sustain the Warriors.

What is disturbing, however, is the increasing number of football supporters and the VVIPs who are getting free entry in football matches when at the same time the Warriors have serious financial problems.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of the so-called singing and drum beating Warriors’ followers who believe they have a right to free entry at football matches and even demand free entry at the gate when they do not have complimentary tickets.

The fact that one is a member of the Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association or the Warriors Fan Club is not a ticket to free entry into football matches. These organisations should lead by example by paying for their members to watch and support the Warriors, instead of encouraging them to demand free entry.

What is surprising is that those manning the gates always open their doors to such people despite strict instructions that those without tickets or Privilege Cards should not be allowed in.

There are also the so-called VVIPs – some of whom call themselves businessmen. There are too many of them, to the extent that people who would have sacrificed their money to pay to sit on the VVIP stand do not have seats despite forking out huge sums of money.

Yet the same supporters and the so-called free football watching VVIPs are the first to point fingers at Zifa when the football federation fails to pay the national team due to lack of funds.

The world over, the real football supporters pay to watch their national team and their clubs. Some of them even sacrifice thousands of dollars to follow their teams whenever they play.

Yet in Zimbabwe, it is the opposite. The Zimbabwean football supporter is best known for demanding free entry at football matches. The Zimbabwean football supporter is known for pestering Zifa for a free air ticket to travel and support the Warriors when playing outside the country and worse still, expects Zifa to pay for his accommodation and food when outside the country.

Wait for this one – he does not even have the money to pay for his own airport departure fees, and wants the football controlling body to do that for him.

This is something that has been going on for some time and that practice should be thrown into the dustbin once and for all.

The Warriors and all football clubs in this country survive on gate takings. The Zimbabwean football supporter should learn to pay to sustain the survival of their national team or the clubs they follow.

They should abandon the system of being accorded free entry to get football entertainment for nothing, yet at musical shows, they pay, and for that matter, huge sums than what football demands.

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