Why Uganda might have the world’s most passionate Arsenal fans

Arsenal fans in Uganda appear until they enter the early hours of this week, video rooms and bars outside the country, after the impressive victory of his team over Real Madrid.

The northern London team won 3-0, at home, in the first leg of the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League.

Such was the passion, joy and adulation shown to midfielder Declan Rice and his free kicks, they forgive him for thinking that Arsenal was his homeland.

Every time the club plays, the nation of eastern Africa knows. Together with Manchester United, they are one of the English Premier League (EPL) teams with the greatest support in the country.

Church services, full of fans adorned with the red and white colors of the Gunners, large matches have been carried out, with sentences offered to one side sometimes it is seen, since it is believed that it needs divine help.

The passion for Arsenal and other English clubs has generated an entire industry in Uganda, with stores and vendors that sell larger t -shirts and companies that go to their advertising around the results, while for betting companies it is a massive business.

“I have covered Africa football for many years and I can undoubtedly tell you that the enthusiasm of football in Uganda is on another level,” said veteran sports journalist Isaac Mmema to the BBC.

For Swale Suleiman, a fanatic and mechanical Manchester United with a garage in the capital, Kampala, the emotion lies in the fact that EPL games are competitive, entertaining and sometimes unpredictable and even a “small team can cause discomfort.”

Uganda admirers have prepared for all the best English teams. WhatsApp groups keep the debates beyond the halls and bars.

But Arsenal fans seem to take it to another level, some have even been Arrested for holding victory parades No police notice after winning great matches.

However, this type of Fandom also has a much uglier side, with the love for the game sometimes becomes deadly violence as temperature explode among rival supporters.

“Our people, naturally, attach to some of all heart and the Ugandes really love football,” said the president of the Uganda Soccer Association (UFCA), Stone Kyambadde, to the BBC.

“This football fanaticism has just strengthened with the young generation because they see the English premier from anywhere,” he said.

They can be kept aware of the scores on their phones, but it is mainly a community event and the most remote village will have an improvised video hall where fans will pack to see matches.

But it was for a funeral that the villagers near Lake Victoria gathered last December, to bury a 30 -year carpenter who was shot dead while celebrating Arsenal’s victory over Manchester United.

The speaker after the speaker lamented the loss of John Senyange, who had a gunner a gunner.

He had been watching the game in a video room in the city of Lukaya, and when spontaneous cheers exploded from Arsenal fans after the final whistle, he altered his rivals, including a security guard, which according to the reports pressed the trigger.

At the beginning of the season, about 300 km (186 miles) away in the southwest area of ​​Kabale, the Manchester United Benjamin Ndyamuhaki fan was stabbed by an Arsenal supporter after the two Arsenal and Lisverpool.

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Soccer violence in Uganda dates back to the 1980s, when local games were characterized by stone fights and fights among rival fans.

“There are always cases of leg violence, anyone who expresses FC and SC Villa, the two main local teams in Uganda, have a great derby,” Lumbuye Linika sports scientist told me in a soccer field in Kampala.

But things have worsened a lot: a situation of experts in the situation blame fanaticism fed by the game, and many men try to make a living by betting.

In a tragic case several years ago, the police said a man killed himself with poison after losing money in a bet.

With the increase in online game, just take a second commitment through an application on your phone, which brings the hope of winning large along with the rights of bluff.

Game companies also have the advantage of the Ugandan obsession with the EPL, establishing visualization centers where fans can see games and make their bets.

This is where the problem of beers, with rival fans who make fun of each other when their bets fail.

“With limited job opportunities, many football fans turn to bets as a way of earning fast money,” said Amos Kalwegira, who stopped to talk to me on a Monday morning on a Kambela street when I saw him in a man’s shirt.

“This has become an intense emotional investment that quickly becomes aggression when football results are not favorable.”

For Mr. Linika, all this is a corrosive test: “Soccer should make us happy and it is supposed to be western football is a form of entertainment, but here in Uganda we have turned the way to obtain a means of life, spoiling fun.”

But Collins Bongomin, a superior officer in one of Uganda’s betting companies, said the industry should not be blamed for football violence.

“People simply lack sufficient knowledge about the management of expectations and anger,” he told the BBC, pointing out the efforts of the industry to encourage responsible game.

With more than 2,000 bets throughout the country, it is also demonstrating to be lucrative for the government, which raised around $ 50 million (£ 40 million) in fiscal revenues of the game last year, according to local media.

Some point out that the lethal rivalry mainly involves the Arsenal and Man Utd fans of Uganda, suggest that this has something to do with age and background.

Linika, a Liverpool supporter, said her team tended to attract a larger crowd and those who were a little better, with the Arsenal and Man Utd fan base extracted from poorer areas.

“We are currently on top of the Premier League table and you rarely listen to a Liverpool fan involved in violence,” he said.

Pamela Icumar, popularly known as Mama Liverpool because her burning devotion to the Reds, agreed that her fellow fans knew how to handle their emotions “even when we are losing.”

But Arsenal’s fan, Agnes Kating, laughed at this when I with both in Kampala: the two women are part of a woman dedicated after the EPL. Mrs. Icumar is also part of a women’s fans club.

For Solomon Kutesa, secretary of the Official Games of Arsenal Supporters in Uganda, the culture to drink in the country is to blame for football violence.

“Some of the fans look at the games while they are intoxicated and it becomes difficult to drive them when their teams lose,” he told the BBC.

Some suggest that fans return to local stadiums and outside the bars could stop hysteria, and help revitalize the Uganda Premier League.

“The current generation only knows about European football. If we invest more in the local league, we could interrupt a lot of attention paid to foreign games,” said Kyambadde, while acknowledging that he suffered a bad lack of lack of star.

Former soccer player Tom Lwanga, who played for the National Uganda team when the cranes reached the 1978 African African Cup final, agreed.

“We became famous because we used to play when the stadiums were full. We need to return to that time and handle the frenzy with European football,” he told me in the empty stalls of the Phillipo omondi stadium in Kampala while we saw a local game.

Others blame the lack of live television broadcasts for the decline of the Uganda League.

They assume Basalirwa, president of the Uganda Parliamentary Sports Club, which was also at the Omondi Stadium, is among those who try to boost the local game.

“I am among the few parliamentarians who look at local football and we want to see more leaders, only the president, reaching the stage to support local teams,” he said.

But for Mr. Kuta, whose love for Arsenal goes back to the days of players like Nwankwo Kanu and Thierry Henry, the next few weeks are very important.

“Our emotions are at this time. We are where we belong and this is definitely our season,” he said in February.

While it seems that their title offer is over, they are in a solid position to qualify for the semifinals of the Champions League for the first time in 16 years, provided they avoid a disaster in Wednesday’s first leg against Real Madrid.