LIBREVILLE - A depressingly common sight at many 2012 Africa Cup of Nations games has been the ranks of empty seats at stadia in both Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Full houses turn up to watch the co-hosts in action, but elsewhere it’s a markedly different tale.
When Sudan sneaked into the quarter-finals by defeating Burkina Faso in Bata on Monday there were more players, officials and press than a miserly turnout of just 132 fans.
The game was played out in a near-funereal atmosphere, an embarrassment for organisers CAF and co-hosts Equatorial Guinea.
It was a similar story at Libreville’s brand new 40,000-seater L’Amitie Stadium in Tuesday, when only a smattering of supporters made the effort to watch the meaningless closing Group C tie between two already eliminated sides — Morocco and Niger.
The reason — the country’s eyes were all trained on Gabon’s second city Franceville where Gabon were in action against Tunisia.
In a bid to reverse the trend and get bums on seats local media report that the Confederation of African Football has authorised the giving away of free tickets for this weekend’s quarter-finals.
That should hopefully bolster attendance in the last eight games not featuring the co-hosts — especially Zambia’s tie against Sudan in Bata on Saturday and Ghana’s date with Tunisia in Franceville 24 hours later.
Poor crowd turn-out at African football games
LIBREVILLE - A depressingly common sight at many 2012 Africa Cup of Nations games has been the ranks of empty seats at stadia in both Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Full houses turn up to watch the co-hosts in action, but elsewhere it’s a markedly different tale.
When Sudan sneaked into the quarter-finals by defeating Burkina Faso in Bata on Monday there were more players, officials and press than a miserly turnout of just 132 fans.
The game was played out in a near-funereal atmosphere, an embarrassment for organisers CAF and co-hosts Equatorial Guinea.
It was a similar story at Libreville’s brand new 40,000-seater L’Amitie Stadium in Tuesday, when only a smattering of supporters made the effort to watch the meaningless closing Group C tie between two already eliminated sides — Morocco and Niger.
The reason — the country’s eyes were all trained on Gabon’s second city Franceville where Gabon were in action against Tunisia.
In a bid to reverse the trend and get bums on seats local media report that the Confederation of African Football has authorised the giving away of free tickets for this weekend’s quarter-finals.
That should hopefully bolster attendance in the last eight games not featuring the co-hosts — especially Zambia’s tie against Sudan in Bata on Saturday and Ghana’s date with Tunisia in Franceville 24 hours later.
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