Rickety structure, stench, body odour! What football fans go through at viewing centres

Football fans go through a seeming hell at various viewing centres in Nigeria. OLAMIDE ENIOLA writes on their experiences and the conditions of most of the centres.

IT was going to be an interesting game judging by the number of viewers already milling around the stuffy entrance of the viewing centre, which had by then become rowdy because of the young chaps who were trying to catch a glimpse of the television screen from the door. From its crowded outlook and other giveaway signs, someone coming to the place for the first time will not sweat much before locating the place or guessing correctly what they do there. Welcome to Idi Ope Viewing Centre, Imalefalaafia, Ibadan, where the fixtures for the day’s football matches were written in chalk on a ragged board hanging on the entrance’s door.

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On entering the viewing centre, one was confronted by the gazing eyes of anxious viewers, which glowed under the single fluorescent bulb providing illumination for the entire room. Their attention was riveted on one place only: the plasma television sets that were arranged delicately in front of rows of benches, many of which were already occupied by the football fans. Interestingly, as these viewers entered the room, some of them would pull off their tops before settling down on the benches, talking loudly and issuing friendly threats to supporters of opposing team.

Not even the four ceiling fans hanged at different corners of the room could suppress the heat in the crowded room or the emission of stench from sweating faces and naked torsos. The fans only succeeded in ensuring that the different body odour is well mixed and circulated round the room.

Now seated, the viewers had to grapple with having an uninterrupted view of the match, as the operator while collecting the fee from the spectators would occasionally block their view.

“Bros,” the operator called out to a customer who just entered signalling to him to pay.

“How much?” the customer asked.

“Hundred naira,” answered the operator.

Though the space looked filled up, the operator did not for once stop new customers from entering. He would ingeniously create a little space where they could sit or squat to watch the match, even by converting the narrow passage of the makeshift structure to a sitting area. The viewers on these latter set of benches had two ways of facing the televisions – either by sitting, resting their backs on the wall, with necks turned or by sitting with the bench in-between their legs.

With no available sitting space, those who could not afford the gate fee would sometime still manoeuvre their way to watch the matches, though with the consent of the operator, either by finding a place to perch or standing outright.

Sometimes, to get a better view, the spectators, especially those who are short, would climb a table or chairs. This was the route taken by one of the spectators, who having been impeded by taller spectators, stood on the bench with his head some inches away from one of the dangling ceiling fans.

“You don’t have to die here, you hear? Go die at home, because I don’t have any money to take care of you should your head get scraped now!” the operator shouted at him and this was met with jeers and laughter from other spectators who, after calling the person by his name, asked him to go and do something to his height.

This is a tip of the iceberg of what most football lovers go through at various viewing centres across the country. Barring the few seemingly comfortable ones, a host of other such viewing centres are ovens as their environment, both outside and inside, bespeaks the risk these football fans take to get themselves entertained.

In 2017 in Port Harcourt, no fewer than six Nigerian football lovers reportedly lost their lives with 25 seriously burnt, because their viewing centre was located under a high-tension cable. On that fateful night, the cable reportedly fell on the viewing centre, electrocuting many of the ardent football lovers.

Even Nigerian universities’ common rooms, especially in male hostels, are not spared of the rot. Just in 2015, a 200 level student of the University of Ibadan, Mayowa Alaran, reportedly died after he was suffocated in the common room of one of the male hostels in the university.

But not even the inhabitable nature of many of these centres has deterred the Nigerian football lovers. They seem to enjoy the risk and are unmindful of the danger to their lives. Some football lovers who spoke with Sunday Tribune revealed several other menaces they endure each time they visit the centres. Some of the ills they bear with range from poor electrification through poor ventilation to the structure of the centres which are reportedly weak.

Having lost voice audibility, probably due to much argument and shouts for seeing his team topple a tough rival, Chelsea, in the English Premier League, a Liverpool die-hard-supporter, Nelson Daramola, spoke on the pitiable condition of the structure of the viewing centres where he normally watches football matches at Mowe, Ogun State.

“The viewing centre is a wooden structure with dropping canopy. The floor is not plastered, just an open ground. The roof covering the structure is patched with tarpaulin, now tattered. This affects the ventilation in the structure. Although the operator bought some standing fans to cushion the heat, most of the fans, now rusty, are no longer functioning. People normally pull off their clothes to watch.

“There is no orderliness in the sitting arrangement. At a point, we normally stand up to see. The electrification is poorly done: broken sockets and poor lightening. One could see the naked wires roughly connected,” he revealed.

Interestingly, most of these viewing centres across the country share the same ragged story and history as a survival plan contrived by one of the millions of jobless young Nigerians. Not much thought was given to comfort, but just an outlet to make money by showing football matches.  Likethe viewing centre at Mowe, Kolawole Mohammed, who lives in Osogbo, Osun State capital, gave the despicable condition of the centre where he usually enjoys football matches.

“The centre is a wooden structure, where all the woods have holes as a result of rain and sunshine. Tarpaulin sometimes serves as shield for rain and ray. Cross ventilation is difficult when we congregate.

“The safety of this centre is really questionable. Looking at the structure of the centre, it is not solid. It is weak. And you know, as club fans, when our team scores a goal, we could, out of excitement, bang or hit the wall surface of the wooden structure, which is not safe for lives within the centre. The weak structure could collapse. And this is one dangerous habit the centre operator has no control upon.”

But Alex Fadugba, a Chelsea fan based in Ile-Ife, did not believe that the viewing centres were as bad as painted by people. Apart from serving the single purpose of providing the platform for entertainment, the place where he paid to watch matches, according to him, “is safe… This is possible because the centre operator has been able to manage the centre well.

“The structure was built with both blocks and planks, with the blocks serving as its foundation. The centre is spacious and well ventilated, although it is always stuffy, stifling and overpopulated during star matches. The wiring was done well to the extent that there are charging spaces on the wooden wall for viewers to charge their phones while watching matches.

“The structure is high enough for viewers to jump and jubilate when our teams score, without being hurt by the ceiling fans. Yes, people still complain sometimes. But I see all that as part of being human,” he concluded.

A viewing centre owner, Michael Ogunesan, however, said for some of them, it was not all about making money. Some operators invested a lot to ensure maximum comfort of their customers. He took time to enumerate the numerous things he had added to his centre for the comfort of the viewers.

“It is a block structure having three entrances and two big windows. The electrification of the place is well done. All the wires are properly run. I have a change-over box which is situated at a place far away from the centre. Because the walls are high enough, the cables are passed through the wall to where power supply is needed.”

He continued: “Even though viewers always complain about heat, especially when the centre is overcrowded during big matches, I have bought two giant Ox fans. Plans are underway to get more fans and to create two window frames more on the structure.”

A life without good football…?

Nigerians love the game of football. But not all of them can afford the high charges of the cable network providers, especially DSTV, so will have to rely on the viewing centres to watch their favourite football clubs.

Looking closely at the problems, viewers suggested likely ways out of them. While speaking on these, Nelson Daramola suggested that the Nigerian government should put a regulatory body which would saddled with the duty of regulating where viewing centres could be located and the basic amenities centre operators should furnish the centres with.

He said: “Basically, I think the government should set up a body that will regulate the location of viewing centres and the standard of facilities in them. I remember the centre where I normally watch matches in Shagamu is located by the roadside. On a fateful day like that, a fellow almost lost his because of this unsafe location. His team just scored, and he ran out in excitement, celebrating the goal. Unfortunately, the celebration was short lived: he ran out and got hit by a motorcycle. He didn’t lose his life though, yet I feel such could have been avoided if the centre were to have been sighted in decent environment.”