BBC News, Kampala

Arsenal fans in Uganda participated well in the early hours this week, outside the video halls and bars across the country, after the stunning victory of their team over Real Madrid.
The North London-based team won 3-0, at home, in the first match of the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Such was the passion, joy and bias shown to the midfielder Decan Rice and his free kicks, you will be forgiven that you think Arsenal is home.
Every time the club plays, the East African nation knows about it. Along with Manchester United, they are one of the teams of the English Premier League (EPL) with the largest support in the country.
Church services, full of fans arranged in the red and white artillery colors, are held before big matches – with prayers offered for a country that sometimes looks as if it needs divine help.
The passion for Arsenal and other English clubs has generated an entire industry in Uganda, with stores and suppliers selling T -shirts and bigger companies aimed at advertising around the results, while for sports betting companies, this is a massive business.

“I have revealed football throughout Africa for many years and I can tell you no doubt that football enthusiasm in Uganda is on another level,” veteran sports journalist Isaac Mumema told the BBC.
For Swale Suleiman, a fan and mechanic of Manchester United, which I met in a garage in the capital, Campal, the excitement lies in the fact that EPL matches are competitive, funny and sometimes unpredictable and even “a small team can cause a disorder”.
The Ugandan fan clubs are created for all the best English countries. WhatsApp groups continue the debate to exceed the halls and bars.
But it seems that Arsenal fans bring him out to another level – some have even been Arrested for holding parades of victory Without a police notice after winning big matches.
However, this type of Fandom also has a much higher country, with the love of play sometimes turning into deadly violence, since temperaments blaze between rival supporters.
“Our people naturally attach themselves to something with all hearts, and Ugandans really love football,” said the chairman of the UFCA Football Coaches Association Stone Kyambade to the BBC.
“This football fanaticism has even intensified with the younger generation because they are watching the English Premier League everywhere,” he said.
They can keep up with the results of their phones, but this is a major common event and even the most remote village will have an impromptu video hall in which fans will gather to watch matches.
But it was for the funeral that the peasants near Lake Victoria gathered last December to bury a 30-year-old carpenter who was shot dead while celebrating Arsenal's victory over Manchester United.
The speaker after a speaker mourned the loss of John Senyang, who has been an artillery throughout his life.
He watched the match in a video hall in the city of Lukaya – and when spontaneous cheers erupted from Arsenal fans after the final whistle, she upset their rivals, including a security guard who, according to the reports, pulled the trigger.
Earlier in the season about 300 km (186 miles) in the southwestern Kabbale region, Manchester United fan Benjamin Ndiamuki was stabbed to death by a supporter of Arsenal after the two argued about the results of the epic clash between Arsenal and Liverpool.
In 2023, in various parts of the country there were four deaths related to the Premier-two Arsenal fans were killed by MAN UTD supporters, a fan died in mysterious circumstances after MAN UTD was destroyed by 7-0 from Liverpool, another man died after a session.
Football violence in Uganda dates back to the 1980s, when local games are characterized by throwing stone and fist struggles between rival fans.
“There have always been cases of violence whenever it expresses FC and SC villas – the two main local teams in Uganda – they have a big derby,” I told me the sports scientist Lumbue Loran on a football field in Campal.
But things have gotten much worse – a situation that experts accuse of gambling fanaticism, with many men trying to make their livelihood by betting.
In a tragic case, a few years ago, police said a man had killed himself with poison after losing money on a bet.
With the rise of online gambling, it just takes a second to bet on an application on your phone, which brings hope to win big combined with boasting rights.
Game companies also take advantage of the Ugandan mania for EPL, creating viewing centers where fans can watch games and bet on their bets.
This is where the problem is often prepared – as rival fans are annoyed when their bets fail.

“With limited job opportunities, many football fans turn to betting as a way to earn fast money,” said Amos Kalvegira, who stopped talking to me one Monday morning on the street in Campal when I noticed him in a shirt of a man UTD.
“This has become an intense emotional investment that often quickly becomes aggression when football results are not favorable.”
For the bin, all this turns out to be corrosive: “Football must make us happy, and Western football is supposed to be a form of fun, but here in Uganda we turned it as a way of gaining a livelihood, spoiling fun.”
But Collins Bongomin, a senior officer in one of Uganda's betting companies, said the industry should not be blamed for football violence.
“People simply do not have enough knowledge of managing expectations and anger,” he told the BBC, noting the efforts of the industry to promote the responsible gambling.
With over 2000 betting stores across the country, it also turns out to be profitable for the government, which raised about $ 50 million (£ 40 million) tax revenue from gambling last year, according to local media.

Some note that the deadly rivalry mainly includes Arsenal fans and MAN UTD of Uganda, which suggests that it has something to do with age and origin.
Liverpool supporter, said his team tends to attract the older crowd and those who are a little better -with the Arsenal and Man Utd fan, withdrawn from the greater areas.
“We are currently at the top of the Premier League table and rarely hear about a Liverpool fan participating in violence,” he said.
Pamela Iduma, known as Mama Liverpool for her ardent devotion to the Reds, agreed that her fellow fans knew how to manage their emotions “even when we lose.”
But Arsenal fan Agnes Karende laughed this when I met them and the two in Campala – the two women are part of a dedicated woman after EPL. ICUMAR is even part of a fan club only for women.
For Solomon Kutes, secretary of the official Arsenal support club in Uganda, the country's drinking culture is to blame for football violence.
“Some fans watch the games in the drunk state and it becomes difficult to manage when their teams lose,” he told the BBC.
Some suggest that the return of fans to local stadiums and outside the bars can limit hysteria – and help revive the Ugandan Premier League.
“The current generation knows only about European football. If we invest more in the local league, we could be able to break a lot of attention to the foreign games,” said G -N Kyambadde, while admitting that he suffers from a bad reputation and lack of star power.
Former footballer Tom Livga, who played for the Uganda national team, when taps reached the finals of the Africa Cup in 1978, agreed.
“We became famous because we played when the stadiums were full. We have to go back to that era and manage the fury with European football,” he told me in the empty stands at the Philip Omondi Stadium at Campal as we watched a local match.
Others blame the lack of live television shows on the decline of the Ugandan League.
Asuman Basaliva, chairman of the Uganda Parliamentary Sports Club, who was also at Omondi Stadium, is among those who are trying to strengthen the local game.
“I am one of the few MPs who watch local football and we want to see more leaders, even the president coming to the stadium to support local teams,” he said.
But for Mr. Kutsa, whose love for Arsenal dates from the days of players such as Nwankwo Kanu and Thierry Henry, the next few weeks are important.
“Our emotions are high right now. We are where we belong and this is definitely our season,” he said in February.
Although their title offer seems to be over, they are in a strong position to qualify for the Champions League semi -finals for the first time in 16 years, as long as they avoid disaster in the second Wednesday match against Real Madrid.
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