In 1995 music icon Michael Jackson sang;
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
Don’t worry what people say, we know the truth
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
Enough is enough of this garbage
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
When the king of pop sang this hit song he probably neither knew Zambia as a Country existed nor for that matter, the Chipolopolo later alone their long-suffering faithful fans.
Yet 28 years later the song seemed apt to be dedicated to the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) for their amateurish organization of the crucial AFCON qualifier between Chipolopolo and Ivory Coast at the 50,000-seater Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
FAZ had put in their best in preparing the team who subsequently went on to win the game but regrettably forgot about the 12th player, were just negligent or plain incompetent.
FAZ has been busy sanctioning clubs for the behavior of the fans especially on the Copperbelt but when it was their time to show how to organize a game the association fell flat on their collective faces.
Anyone who has ever organized a function knows that there is supposed to be a plan on how to handle the audience, security and ushers are paramount. How FAZ thought the expected 50,00 people will usher and police themselves is a travesty.
People had started complaining about the availability of cheap tickets during the week and that should have sent a message to FAZ to ensure that crowd control was top notch.
For a start, checking tickets which have designated wings, rows and seat numbers from the gate is utter madness.
The reason the tickets indicated the seating arrangement is because the designer knew that the best way to start crowd control is to have people stick to the information on their tickets.
Why those tickets had detail of the individual who has purchased them and the contact numbers entered in the system is to be able to track people who misbehave.
FAZ endangered the lives of 50,000 peoples and the fact that there was no tragedy is a miracle. Hooligans were on the loose threatening and beating people and there were neither ushers, security nor police to bring any semblance or order.
People were moving from their allocated seats to plusher areas un controlled when the owners of the seats came in, it was cue for confusion.
Of course, its not FAZ’s making that some idiots amongst us think throwing projectiles onto the pitch, when your team scores, to take the lead, at home, is the way to celebrate, but then again what do you expect when you leave idiots to do as they please.
Ideally seat numbers should be followed religiously. Security should be visible and active, punters have no business walking aimlessly in sections where they are no allocated.
Each wing should have two state police, tow security and four ushers. Vendors of merchandise especially bottled drinks should be no were near terraces but restricted to the vast spaces around the ground. People should be searched before going to the seating area if the people managing crowd control deems it necessarily.
There is actually a pattern of football hooliganism growing and FAZ seem to have neither an idea nor plan to deal with it. Closing grounds and sanctioning clubs seem not to be working.
A case in point is the last Kitwe derby between Power Dynamos and Nkana were ugly scenes embarrassed the nation on live television.
Power Dynamos supporters for some strange reason decided to celebrate their team scoring by throwing projectiles on the pitch, their counter parts reciprocated by throwing more projectiles on the pitch and chaos ensued.
FAZ it seems have chosen to wish the ugly incident away to the detriment of any football lover particularly those who support local football by going to watch matches at various stadia.
And where is Zambia Police when all this is happening? is it not Zambia Police business on how large crowds are managed? Is misbehavior at public gatherings not Zambia Police business.
The more Zambia Police fold their arms, or employ their favorite strategy of standing akimbo and watching unruly fans throw bottle on the pitch the more things will get ugly.
FAZ and Zambia Police should have a review meeting and use it as a basis to plan on how they will handle hooliganism the coming MTN Premier league season.
Teams should be guided to increase security and ushers at games, efforts should be made to identify hooligans and arraign them before the courts to send a strong message.
Otherwise FAZ will make everyone reminiscence about the dead king of pope and his lyrics.
