Loyalty of soccer fans to national team vital

Fri, 11 Aug 2017 10:55:55 +0000

Dear Editor,

Soccer fans play a pivotal role to the number one sport, football. As such, they should be loyal to the team be it the club or national team.

However, the behaviour exhibited by soccer fans last Saturday during the international friendly match between Zambia and Ethiopia was unacceptable.

The soccer fans booed the Chipolopolo Boys players for failure to score goals and they instead cheered Ethiopia national team players much to the annoyance and disappointment of the Wedson Nyirenda technical bench.

In any game of football, there is winning and losing. The senior Chipolopolo Boys won the Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON) football tournament in 2012 and the lads made the country proud.

 The senior national team players deserves respect from the soccer fans at all times.

It does not augur well that the soccer fans have been disloyal to the team in recent past and they have endeared themselves with Under 17, Under 20 and Under 23 national teams. This should not be the case.

 My humble appeal to the soccer fans is that they should exhibit exemplary behaviour by being loyal to our senior national team whether in defeat or victory.

 All said and done, I feel the behaviour exhibited by the soccer fans during the friendly match with Ethiopia will not be repeated in future games.

 ELEMIYA PHIRI, Lusaka.