Long live AFC fans: the club needs you now!
What you need to know:
- I urge Ingwe branches all over the country to vigorously encourage their members to travel and attend matches involving AFC Leopards.
- And let me not hear them say that they want to see the team start performing well before they spend their time and money to attend matches.
- It is like trying to engage in that age-old argument: What came first? The egg or the chicken?
As the exercise of signing a few new quality players continues, Ingwe fans must realise that they are, after the players, the most important cog in the success drive of this great club.
Football without fans is nothing, it is like dancing superbly in front of nobody.
The ever decreasing number of Ingwe fans in our matches this season has been indeed a worrying trend.
Even in Europe when big teams are not performing, fans are never quiet. They make demands till things change.
Gor Mahia currently have the highest average attendance in our local league, but can hardly reach 10,000.
Peanuts compared to Leopards’ attendance in years of yore.
To avoid delirious noise from our loud-mouthed in-laws I will not mention Leopards’ current attendance figures. All I can say is that the numbers are worrying.
Just to reminisce, Leopards and Gor were once known for their lively crowds that made the stadium atmosphere electric.
Ingwe fans, scattered in all corners of the country, would hire buses to attend Leopards matches wherever they were held.
And they would paint the places visited blue and white. Nobody would be in doubt who was in town.
Our passionate supporters who followed the team all over providing the famed atmosphere disappeared somehow, like bad magic from K’Ogalo.
Where are Ingwe fans now? Can they please come back, Leopards needs them.
According to the balance sheet for the 1st leg, things have not been good for Leopards in terms of gate revenues.
I realise that many fans have opted to follow the team on television, online and in the newspapers perhaps to avoid suffering the humiliation of watching their beloved team lose live.
But I am trying to understand this cowardly act. Leopards used to realise good ticket sales even during bad times. But it is tough going now. Even enforcing fair pricing, the attendance is still low.
More alarming is the fact that even this small section coming to attend matches are asking for free admission to the stadium!
Playing in Machakos could be to blame, partially. When some matches were moved to Bukhungu Stadium in Kakamega we witnessed a noticeable increase in attendance, confirming that fans in that section of the country are more loyal to the club.
I urge Ingwe branches all over the country to vigorously encourage their members to travel and attend matches involving AFC Leopards.
And let me not hear them say that they want to see the team start performing well before they spend their time and money to attend matches.
It is like trying to engage in that age-old argument: What came first? The egg or the chicken?
We are a big cats. End of argument.
The Leopards need you the fan in the stadium cheering them through thick and thin, through Gor Mahia hooligans and sore losers, and through all this Johnnie come lately outfits who think they can supplant Ingwe as the glamour club of Kenya.
The passion of a fan is to celebrate and mourn with the team through victory and loss. Yes, Ingwe forever!
