No force in the world can order fans to go to matches, Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), said here Friday.
Hayatou was defending CAF against criticism at some of the desperately low crowds seen at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
While bumper attendances turned up to follow co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea whenever they played, elsewhere it was a markedly different picture.
A paltry 132 fans went to the game between Sudan and Burkina Faso in the 30,000-seater Bata stadium, while the sight of row upon row of empty seats was an altogether too frequent sight at many other games.
But Hayatou said: "What can CAF do? We want stadia to be full but no force in the world can go into homes and tell people 'Go the the stadium'.
"In Africa, but it must be the same in Europe, when the organising country's team is knocked out, enthusiasm drops.
"Whilst these teams were still in it, we had full stadia.
"But from the moment when they were eliminated (at the quarter-final stage for both the co-hosts), people are disappointed.
"Neither the political power, nor the police, nor CAF, nor journalists can get people to go the stadium, let's be realistic."
He did however recognise that the problem needed to be addressed for forthcoming editions of the Nations Cup, with the next one in south Africa in 2013.
He suggested one way to solve the problem would be "to appeal to children in schools".
Egypt got round the problem of low attendance when they hosted the 2006 edition by filling up their stadia with military personnel.
"But the press criticised that, saying 'they weren't fans'," he explained.
"Like as if the military weren't men. The Egyptian army paid for the tickets to give to the officers who went to the stadia.
"It's always 'fair game' to attack Africa but there are other countries whose stadia are only two thirds full," he concluded.
Source: AFP
