Why Uganda may have the hottest arsenal supporters in the world

Arsenal’s fans in Uganda were well involved in the first hours this week, outside the videos and bars across the country, after the stunning victory of their team over Real.

The team based in North London received 3-0 at home, in the first stage of the Champions League.

Such a passion, joy and affiliation shown by the Decla Rice Decla, and his free blows, you would have forgiven that we thought the arsenal was a horn.

Every time the club plays, the Eastern African nation knows about it. Along with Manchester United, they are one of the English Premier League teams (EPL) with the biggest support in the country.

Church services filled with fans covered in red -white artillery colors passed before big matches – with prayers offered by the side, which sometimes looks as if divine help.

The passion for the arsenal and other English clubs gave rise to a whole branch of Uganda, and shops and sellers sell jerseys and large companies aimed at advertising around the results, while sports rates are a mass business.

“I have been illuminating football across Africa for many years, and without a doubt, I can say that football enthusiasm is on a different level,” said veterans’ sports journalist Isaac Mammem.

For Swale Suleiman, a fan of Manchester United and a mechanic I met in the garage in the capital, Campal, the excitement is that the EPL matches are competitive, entertaining and sometimes unpredictable, and even a “small team can cause an upset”.

Uganda fan clubs were created for all the main English sides. WhatsApp groups retain debate that goes beyond the halls and bars.

But the arsenal fans seem to carry it to another level – some were even Arrested for holding Victory Paradise Without the police report after winning in big matches.

However, this type of Fandom also has a much more ugly side, and the love of the game sometimes resorts to death when temperatures break out between the competitor fans.

“Our people, of course, attach to something sincerely, and Uganda really love football,” said the chairman of the UFCA Cambadde BBC.

“This football fanaticism has increased with the younger generation even more because they watch the English Prime Minister from anywhere,” he said.

They may be up to date on their phones, but mostly a municipal event, and even the most devoted village will have a makeshift video where fans will watch to watch matches.

But it was at the funeral of the residents of the village near Lake Victoria that he gathered in December last year to bury the 30-year-old carpenter who was shot dead, marking Arsenal’s victory over Manchester United.

After the speaker, the speaker lamented John Senyan, who was a gunner all his life.

He watched the match in the video in Luka – and when the spontaneous encouragement broke out after the final whistle, it upset their opponents, including a guard who was reportedly pressed on the trigger.

Earlier in the season, about 300 km (186 miles) in the southwestern area of ​​Kabal, a supporter of Manchester United Benjamin Nsmuhaki was stabbed by a fans of Arsenal after two reflected on the results of an epic collision between Arsenal and Liverpool.

In 2023, four deaths were held in different parts of the country, related to the Prime Minister-two supporters of Arsenal were killed by a person of UTDD, a supporter died in mysterious circumstances after a man was subjected to 7-0 Liverpool and the other person died of stab wounds after trying to intervene after Arsenal.

Uganda’s football violence dates from the 1980s, when local games were characterized by throwing stones and fists between adversary fans.

“There have always been cases of violence when express -fka and the SK villa – two major local teams of Uganda – have the main derby,” the sports scientist Limannika on the football field told me.

But everything has become much worse – the situation experts are blamed for bigotry, which is fueled by gambling, and many men are trying to earn a living by putting rates.

In the tragic case, a few years ago, police said the man killed himself after losing money in the rate.

With the growth of gambling on the Internet, it takes seconds to bet on the app on your phone, which brings hope to win the great in combination with the boasting of rights.

Gaming companies also took advantage of Uganda’s obsession with EPL, setting views of centers where fans can watch games and make their rates.

It is here that the trouble is often brewed – with the fans of the competitors teasing each other if their rates do not receive.

“With disabilities, many football lovers turn to the rate as a way to make quick money,” said Amos Kalwgir, who stopped talking to me one morning on Monday on the street in Camol when I noticed it in a person’s shirt.

“It has become an intense emotional investment that often turns into aggression when football results are not favorable.”

For Mr. Linniki, this is all aggressive: “Football must make us happy and Western football, presumably will be a form of entertainment, but here, in Uganda, we have done this way to earn a livelihood, ruin the pleasure.”

But Collins Bongomin, a senior officer in one of Uganda’s betting, said the industry should not blame football violence.

“People simply lack sufficient knowledge of expectations and anger,” he said, noting that the industry’s efforts to stimulate responsible gambling games.

With more than 2,000 rates for rates across the country, it is also profitable for the government, which last year raised about $ 50 million (40 million pounds) tax revenues from gambling, local media reported.

Some point out that the deadly rivalry mainly provides supporters of Arsenal Uganda and UTD man, believing it is due to age and background.

Mr. Liverpool Liverpool supporter said his team sought to attract the old crowd and those who were a little better – with the supporters of the arsenal and the UTD man stretched out of poor areas.

“Currently, we are on top of the Prime Minister’s table, and you rarely hear about the Liverpool supporter who is involved in violence,” he said.

Ikumar’s measured, known as Mom Liverpool because of her passionate devotion to the red, agreed that her fellow chasters know how to manage their emotions, “even when we lose.”

But Arsenal’s supporter Agnes Catenda laughed when I met both in Camol – both women enter a devoted woman who follows the EPL. Mrs. Icumar is even part of the women’s club.

For Solomon Corners, Secretary of the Official Club of Arsenal supporters in Uganda, the country’s drinking culture is guilty of football violence.

“Some of the fans are watching their intoxication games, and it becomes difficult for them to control them when their teams lose,” he said BBC.

Some suggest returning fans to local stadiums, and can restrain hysteria from the bars and help to revive the Ugandan Prime Minister.

“The current generation knows only about European football. When we invest more in the local league, we will be able to disrupt a lot of attention paid to foreign games,” Mr. Kambadde said, admitting that he suffered from poor reputation and lack of star power.

Former footballer Tom Lvang, who played for Uganda’s national team when the cranes reached the 1978 African Cup finals.

“We became known because we played when the stadiums were full. We needed to return to this era and manage madness with European football,” he told me on the empty stands of Philip Omondi stadium when we watched the local match.

Others accuse the absence of live television broadcasts in the decline of the Ugandan League.

Asman Basolir, chairman of the Ugandian Parliament Sports Club, who was also at the Homondy stadium, is one of those trying to enhance the local game.

“I am one of the few MPs watching local football and we want to see more leaders, even the president, coming to the stadiums to support local teams,” he said.

But for Mr. The corners whose love for the arsenal dates from players such as Nwankwo Kanu and Thierry Henry, next few weeks.

“Our emotions are now high. We are where we belong, and it is definitely our season,” he said in February.

Although their title application seems to be over, they are the first time in the Champions League semi -finals for the first time in 16 years, while they avoid disaster in the second Wednesday match against Real Madrid.