Football Frenzy in a Faraway Land

Goal! This single word will reverberate across the globe in a few days from now. As the most popular sport on the planet, football has its followers everywhere. Even in Cricket crazy India, there is growing interest and fan following thanks to English Premier League and the recently concluded Champions league finals. But football world cup with all its hype propels the game into a different league. But here in South Sudan, catching the game live on TV is still very rare.

Football has always been very popular in Africa with some teams like Nigeria and Cameroon kicking butt of some of the more famous teams. Here in Juba, slowly but surely the football fever is catching up. All the bars and restaurants have started their renovation in good measure. Re-painting the walls, sprucing up the interiors with loud curtains and matching paint schemes. But most importantly, customers are demanding that the hotels renew their subscriptions to Super Sports the one channel which relays all football games Live!

Watching football games in South Sudan is largely confined to the hotels (large and small) where they have TVs with satellite TV connection. I have to join the hundreds of hopefuls who could catch some of the weekend fixtures on a TV screen in some remote hotel or other. The choices are limited though as the high end hotels are likely to spike up the rates of drinks and food to keep the crowd at bay. But in the smaller hotels, the game is on.

Names of hotels / shops I had seen in South Sudan are rather unique and interesting. We buy all our office stationery from Honeymoon Book Store! When I’m in Aweil, I never miss the Good Life –the hotel that is. That serves yummy barbequed meats. In Juba, I hope to catch the action this season in any of these no frills hotels: The Red Ocean Hotel, Missed Call Hotel, BBC Hotel, Nameless Hotel or The Middle Class Pub.

“Cold Beer and Football Mat” screams the banner outside BBC Hotel. I imagined that you can watch football seated on a mat, sipping your beer. But later I learnt, that Mat is actually Match, written in a way that could be pronounced by the South Sudanese – just like they call my name “Print”

Like every other aspect of life in South Sudan, watching a game on TV too is completely disorganized and way too complicated for the simple folk. Let me illustrate with an example. It was champion’s league final – Liverpool vs Real Madrid. With Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane - household names in this part of the world, playing in the finals, the excitement started a week ago. Red Ocean Hotel was the chosen venue to watch this particular game. Just previous day, I was there and pointed out to my friend Michael Ofwano that the Sports channel is not playing. He nodded knowingly and said that the owner had promised to pay the subscription today and we’ll get to watch the match.

On match day, Red Ocean started filling up from 4pm! Though the generator would be switched on only after 7 pm, the people did not mind. They had occupied the front rows already. Michael and I too were ready waiting for the game to start. But the TV is not even switched on! There were animated discussions going on in the next table. I don’t know if they are just talking or discussing the finer nuances of the game – either way, business that day was booming for the Ethiopian Hotel. Agnes the stewardess and her colleague Nancy were busy serving mugs of warm beer (the freezer will be powered on after 7pm)

7pm, there was a loud cheer – not because any team had won, but the power was switched on. All eyes were glued on to the TV. The TV was switched on and I could see the blue screen with the yellow status bar saying loading 30%. After what seemed like eternity, the super sports channel was switched on. We were all greeted by the depressing notice: “you are not subscribed to this channel” I told Michael that let’s get out before the already drunk fans start to take matters into their own hands. Michael said, “Wait! the match starts only after 9 pm”

Meanwhile, the fans were getting agitated and the terrified stewardess hid behind the counter. It was the burly chef’s turn to appease the fans. Please have your beer and calm down, manager has gone to pay subscription. He also said that chips (French fries) is now ready and they could place their orders. Seemed like a good idea to me. Michael nodded and we soon had piping hot chips with Heinz ketchup and were watching the blue screen hoping for a miracle.

The clock was ticking away and the bar had no empty space left. Agnes brought some plastic chairs from inside the office and laid them out near the doorway- even though it meant nobody could enter or exit through the door. I noticed it with trepidation from the corner of my eye, but Michael’s assertive presence helped me calm my nerves.

9.30pm, a young man waded through the crowd with a phone in his hand and a remote in another. He came near the TV and intensely watched the blank blue screen. As if on cue, the notification changed! Now it read: “we are checking your subscription status, this may take several minutes…” the young man started speaking on the phone reading out the subscription number given on the screen. Bingo! The game is on.

The timing was so perfect that we could see the kick off. The commentary died out in the cheers that went up from the crowd. Finally, I thought, we could actually watch a match live here in South Sudan. As the match progressed, every time Salah or Mane ran with the ball the crowd will cheer. But their loudest cheer was when the brooding face of Zidane appeared on the screen.

Few minutes into the game, Salah fell down writhing in pain and the crowd became silent. When he was led away from the field, it robbed the game of its charm. The one player who could have made such a difference was no longer there – felled by the usual suspect Sergio Ramos. The game completely changed complexion and finally the wonder goal from Gareth Bale snuffed out any remaining life from Liverpool’s demoralized side.

I looked at the watch, it is past 11.30 pm, an unearthly hour for a foreigner to be away from safety. I turned to Michael frantically looking for a solution. He smiled and said “We wait”Few hours back I was not sure if I’ll be able to catch the game on TV, but Michael had said ‘wait” and the miracle happened. So I decided to wait.

I’m still waiting – for June 14^th!