The shame at Léopold Sédar Senghor Stadium, Dakar, Senegal as Ivory Coast led the Teranga Lions, 2-0 (6-2 on aggregate) in an Africa Nations Cup qualifier is hard to take.
One fan said of the stone throwing: “What use is it to win a game without fairplay or conversely refuse to accept defeat in a sport.”
Senegal assistant coach Ferdinand Coly was also blunt: “I feel great sadness because this type of thing has no place on a football pitch or anywhere else.”
Sport is supposed to be a celebration of human endeavour. No doubt, there are incendiaries bound to spill over, but the bottom line is it is a sport. Right now, there is a celebration that Kenyan football is on the path to recovery, starting with the Kenyan Premier League. Football Kenya Federation, has pulled all stops to hire a coach of repute to take Harambee Stars to the next level.
And just recently, David Rudisha set alight the Olympic Stadium in London by lowering his own 800m World Record. The patriotic feeling that pervaded Kenya then and now is incredible. Despite the disappointing overall results, we accepted defeat but will analyse where we went wrong to prevent a repeat performance. That is the spirit.
Granted, Senegal has some of the best players on the continent today if not the world, that, however, is not enough to win a match. Sometimes, you have to be gracious enough to accept defeat.
Closer home, AFC Leopards’ fans and players showed incredible sportsmanship when they lost 2-1 to eternal rivals Gor Mahia on September 22 but trooped out of the stadium peacefully. However, this contrasted sharply with their behaviour a week earlier in Nakuru when they lost to Western Stima.
Robbing families
Gor has done well to contain their fans through self-policing. Danger, nonetheless, remains such as when fans poured onto the pitch when they beat AFC Leopards at Kasarani posing risk to players, officials and everyone at the stadium.
The last thing we want to suffer is stampedes as witnessed in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Egypt and South Africa that robbed families of their loved ones.
As Harambee Stars play South Africa’s Bafana Bafana tonight, let us ponder over the possibilities and the feel good factor that sports bring to humanity.
