Sports enthusiasts have been cautioned against displaying uncouth and irrelevant behavior lest they risk their teams being banned from participating in the ongoing Kenya Secondary School Term Two Ball Games Championships.
The recent football hooliganism witnessed at Friends Malava Boys School which hosted the Kakamega North Sub-county ball games over the weekend left very little to be desired as far as sports fanaticism is concerned.
Hyped fans supporting their respective secondary schools teams playing the finals engaged police officers in a stone throwing battle after they were directed to disembark from unfinished storey building where they had climbed in drones to have a clear view of the final match that saw their team win (1-0) against Friends Shamberere Boys.
Trouble started after the management of Friends Malava Boys efforts to have the spectators alight from the unfinished storey building due to their own safety failed to bear fruits prompting the school to seek external assistance that saw officers from the Kabras Police station swing into action by arriving at the scene in a huff and proceeded to evacuate the adamant Lugusi fans who were hyped singing and cheering their team against their opponents.
After some tussle here and there, the fans got off the building but started hurling stones and other crude objects to the officers while chanting and advancing towards them challenging them for a battle where one of the Shamberere player was injured in the melee.
Calm was restored after the said officers slithered away from the ground where the fans calmed and continued to watch the game.
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Condemning the incident, the hoist and chief Principal Malava boys cautioned outsiders against being violent and rowdy during such games noting that the games are meant for the schools and not villagers who in most cases control the games and even rough up teachers and referees when their favourite team losses.
“As a host school we have our rules and regulations that should be followed by the teams and fans using our playing grounds and with such a case of hundreds of fans climbing an under construction building to have a clear view of the game is not only dangerous to them but also to us considering that the building collapses and causes injuries to them at the same time prompting us to incur extra expenses of reconstructing it, who will bear the costs?” wondered the Principal.
“In the future if hooliganism is not curtailed we will not be at liberty to host undisciplined fans out to cause mayhem and havoc disrupting the KSSSA at the sub county or at any other levels at all, lets observe and adhere to the rule of law always.”
While conceding defeat, the Friends Shamberere Principal Laban Sikolia also criticized the obscene and uncouth behaviours expressed during the match, terming them as backward and outdated.
He called for sanity during such events advising the fans to be modest and accept results at the end of the match.
Sikolia who has a history of nurturing talent in football promised to be a force to reckon come next year saying he was putting his boys together to clinch not only the sub county trophy but the national one.
“I’m only one month at the school and already our boys have reached the finals, and closely beaten by one goal, come next season we will have sealed all the loopholes and be a formidable team to beat.”
On his part the KSSSA Kakamega North Chairman Zachariah Mulievi has come out to strong caution fans who take action in their own hands after their respective teams lose saying that that legal actions will be taken against them.
This comes after the match officials officiating the Mahira match against St Patricks Bukhakunga that saw the former being banned after their fans failed to accept the goal their team conceded and beat up the match officials forcing them to scamper to safety seeking refuge in the dining hall kitchen of Shamberere Boys.
Mulievi stated that the fans should restrain from vulgar and abusive language directed towards the match officials and even the KSSSA office and display sense of maturity while enjoying the game considering all the teams are from the same constituency.
By Andanje Wakhungu
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