Imagine walking into an ancient Roman arena to find only a gladiator, a lion — and no one else. Soon the gladiator — and the lion, if it is reasonable — may come to the opinion that attempting to kill each other is a futile, even callous, exercise.
This week’s historic lockout game between Kaizer Chiefs and Black Leopards at the FNB Stadium underscored the value of the fan.
It was the fans who caused their own absence when they ripped out the first chairs or struck the first matches that started the fire after Chiefs had lost to Bloemfontein Celtic in the Supa8. If they wanted to showcase fan power, they succeeded.
Supersport United probably hold the Premier Soccer League record of being watched by fewest fans when seven people paid to watch their match against Manning Rangers at Loftus last season.
This season, the ambitious United management has roped in the ever-exciting Jabu Pule. While there are football reasons aplenty to get a player of Pule’s calibre, it is reasonable to assume that the acquisition was meant to ensure that a few more than seven people watch Supersport’s games in future.
Just as gladiators did not kill lions purely to satisfy sadism they first displayed as children killing cats, football is played for the fans.
The game is now controlled by money guys such as Roman Abramovich, and his local equivalent Patrice Motsepe, but the term ”game of billions” refers to the number of fans — not the owners’ bank balances.
So if watching football in a modern-day Colosseum appeals to you, then the next time you go to a soccer match ensure you acknowledge the person sitting next to you. Especially if you’re one of the Loftus Seven.
The absence of the fan tends to reduce the artistic exhibition that football sometimes is to a chore. It did this week at Soccer City.
General consensus at the game was that it was a yawn. Players went about as though they were at a training ground.
Some harsh commentators even intimated that the lockout was a good thing because nobody ought to have been made to part with their hard-earned money to watch what bore only a passing resemblance to a game of football.
Chiefs, for their part, performed the ritual of walking into the middle of the pitch and acknowledging ”the fans”. Pity only two or three people in the media box were available to respond to the ritual.
Chiefs then went on to dish out some football they probably would have been embarrassed to repeat in front of paying customers.
Professional footballers are today’s gladiators. Chances are that the performance was so dire because the players realised that they, like their forebears 2 000 years ago, would be exerting themselves in vain.
It also perhaps explains why Chiefs winger Arthur Zwane’s hair was not plaited as it usually is.
The dazzling Chiefs star, in keeping with the out-of-character nature of events, also missed a chance he ordinarily would have put away if the odds had been stacked a bit more heavily than they were.
In case there were any doubts, football is played for the fan. Though those in the media sometimes forget it, the game is not about club bosses or the verbose spokesmen too ready to announce that the mood is high in their camp.
For it is the fan — that guy whose name you don’t know, and potentially never will — who is as important for the game as anyone whose name you know from newspapers and TV. It is that anonymous individual who is worthy of praise more than the ”special projects” guy, otherwise known as the muti-man.
It is the fan’s passion that can transform a bunch of journeymen into potential champions, as shown by the Bloemfontein Celtic faithful. The reward: the simple pleasure of calling oneself a champion because the team you back is one.
It is the fans — like the Old Trafford crowd that rose as one to give Real Madrid’s Ronaldo a standing ovation even though he had scored a hat-trick against their beloved Manchester United — who give football the ”beautiful game” name.
Chiefs and their fans have learned their lessons. Hopefully, the PSL, the sponsors and even Zwane’s hairdresser have learned that it may be a good idea to add fans of the year to the players, referee, team and whatever else of-the-year awards they dish out at every season’s end. The people deserve it.