Spectators and supporters are the beauty of any game. The presence, participation and support of spectators have, I guess, a key role in the development of any game. The same is applicable in Nepal, other South Asia countries and in the global context.
BCCI, the Indian cricket board, is the richest among all national cricket federations of the country. Similarly, the major European domestic football leagues including English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A or Germany Bundesliga all are established as global brands in the sporting world.
The growth of cricket in India, no doubt, is directly linked with its popularity among the people of the country be it franchise IPL Twenty20 or any other international bilateral series. The key assets for the richness of BCCI or any other aforementioned European League are the participation of audience/supporters/spectators.
In Nepal’s context, the national women's team played their first ever official tournament at the home of Nepali football – the Dasharath Stadium in the past (couple) of weeks and finished runners up as usual, this time losing to Bangladesh 3-1 in the final unlike India in the past.
Despite embarking on their international journey more than three-and-a-half-decade ago, the women team got an opportunity to play at ‘home’ for the first time. The football loving spectators gave a rapturous welcome to the heroes at ‘home’ giving a new perspective to the non-professional football set up of the country.
The New Perspective: Women’s football has immense potential should it be governed and planned rightly. Now the ball is at football governing body ANFA’s court. How they take forward the game.
But the sad fact is that even men's football is not at the professional setup. However, opportunities lie ahead of every challenge. I hope the concerned authorities will not just think of it but take some concrete action.
Having already discussed the role of audience/ supporters/ spectators, the ANFA, however, seemed unaware or careless on part of handling them. After the end of Nepal-Bangladesh final few fans jumped from the general parapet only to embrace and get a glimpse of their favourite star whom they have met frequently on social media platforms like Tiktok or Facebook or others.
Not only in Nepal, scenes of invading the pitch occur frequently even in bigger football stages like World Cup or Euro.
But the guards deployed by FA or other organiser never kick the fans like they did to one of them at the Dasharath Stadium on Tuesday. It's an offence, a crime manhandling him!
Not only did the guards kick one of the poor spectators even after they caught and controlled him, they took him at one corner of the stadium and thrashed him mercilessly.
The order at the stadium must be maintained but ANFA or the guards do not have the right to beat up spectators. Wake up ANFA, educated your guards. DON’T repeat such actions in future.
Have respect for the spectators. They are the beauty and install life on any game.
