5 types of Football fans you will find at viewing centres in Nigeria

English Premier League has started again and that can only mean one thing: football viewing centres! These places are big business in Football gaga Nigeria. Every day (and especially on weekends) football fans troop into the viewing centres for a few hours of cheers, curses and the occasional fight as they watch their favourite teams play. At these viewing centres you will see all sorts of different and often amusing personalities and we will be giving you a brief but thorough description of a number of them. So without further ado, here are 5 types of football fans you will find at viewing centres in Nigeria.

1) The passionate fan:

Ahhhh! the over passionate fan! This Nigerian football fan never misses a match of his favourite club and will often arrive at the viewing centre rocking official club jerseys (or something close as Yaba can provide…ahem) as early as possible. This type of fan is easy to spot as they go from this when their teams win:

to this when they lose:

2) The “Sure bet” fan:

This type of Nigerian football fan on the surface looks a lot like the passionate fan but their reasons are totally different. More than personal satisfaction, the “sure bet” fan has his/her entire life savings and earnings hanging on which teams win or lose and by how much. So when their bets fail to click, na so you go find dem:

3) The Football analysts:

These Nigerian Football fans are the “oracles” of their respective clubs. They can give you all sorts of information from the origin of the clubs to the present day signings. With all sorts of “facts” and “figures” they will confidently reel out 50 reasons why their club will place first in the new season but as we all know, Football is seldom a mathematical equation and when their predictions for the match and season fails you will find them in the midst of angry fans looking confused like:

4) The osho free fans:

Ah! These Nigerian Football fans can be found at every viewing centre. Due to not paying to enter the viewing centre (dollar don rise is the go to excuse), you will find them outside the viewing centre on tiptoes peeping through every window and crack in the wall to get a look in. They are the easiest to identify because every single match dem just be like:

5) The Neutrals

These Nigerian football “fans” have no allegiance to any team in particular and simply support those that are winning at the moment. Football for them is not a do or die affair and they are content to just be at the viewing centre and enjoy a good game but unfortunately due to them always supporting the winning team, they regularly draw the ire of the passionate fans (see above) and this can lead to some angry stares:

So that’s our list, did we miss any out? Do you frequent football viewing centres? If so what kind of Nigerian Football fan are you? Tell us in the comments below. As always we are Viva Naija and we love you.