Seychelles Arsenal Football Fan Club launched |08 July 2014

Seychelles’ first international football fan club was launched on Saturday at the Lungos office, Orion Mall, and present was National Sports Council (NSC) chief executive Giovanna Rousseau.

The England 2014 Football Association (FA) Cup winners, Arsenal FC, are the team whose local fans decided to band up together and form the first official international team fan club here in Seychelles.

The Arsenal Football Club was founded in 1886 as a workers' team and it joined the Football League in 1893. It is one of the most well-known football clubs around the world, alongside the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool just to name a few. The club has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles, and 11 FA Cup titles – a joint record they share with rivals Manchester United.

Under current manager Arsène Wenger, Arsenal have become one of the giants of English and European football. Arsène Wenger has led Arsenal to winning two league and cup doubles and also winning the league unbeaten, and reached the UEFA Champions League final for the first time in their history, as well as moving to the new Emirates Stadium in 2006.

So it is not strange such a team have inspired loyal fans from as far as Seychelles. The Seychelles Arsenal Football Fan Club is the brainchild of devoted Arsenal fan Gerry Sopha, who is the elected chairperson of the Seychelles-based fan club.

Mr Sopha told Sports Nation that the idea first came to him after he had organised a motorcade from the Stad Popiler to the Beach Park at Anse Royale on May 24, 2014, a weekend after Arsenal had won their 11th FA Cup title, on May 17, 2014. He said he sent an invitation to all faithful Arsenal fans on the Pure FM radio, to join the celebratory motorcade. According to Mr Sopha the turnout was beyond what he had expected.

Impressed by the positive turnout, Mr Sopha said they felt they could not end it with simply a motorcade, and so he proposed that they create a fan club, which was agreed by those present. They therefore, on the spot, elected an executive committee, and the week that followed they met for the first time as a committee, whereby they agreed that they would register the fan club legally.

Mr Sopha told Sports Nation that from there on a constitution was drafted and he along with some members took it to the registry to be registered as a legal association, which they did on June 3, 2014.

He said that after they had legally registered as an association, he sought out help from Mr Michel Pierre of Lungos because they also wanted to be registered as a non-governmental organisation with Lungos.

They did not want to stop there, they wanted to go that extra mile because they wanted to be an internationally recognised Arsenal fan club. Therefore they made contact through the official Arsenal website, whereby they received positive feedbacks from the Arsenal head office in Highbury, England, and were asked to send proof of 50 of their members, which they provided. Mr Sopha said that they are still in liaison with the head office and will soon be given their official document as a recognised Arsenal fan club, including the logo that they will be allowed to use legally on their documents and forms.

Their constitution needs to be amended in accordance with that of the main Arsenal head office, and they were told that some of the Arsenal executive members would attend three of their meetings every football season, since they will now be functioning under their directives.

The Seychelles Arsenal Football Fan Club currently has 115 members. In order to become a member of the fan club you can contact Mr Sopha himself by email – gerrysopha@yahoo.com – or by phone on 2523580. They do not presently have a head office, but Mr Sopha told Sports Nation that they are in negotiation to acquire one in the vicinity of Victoria.

New members are required to pay R200 as entry fee, whereby they will be kept on a provisional probation period, before receiving their official membership card.

Mr Sopha said that the objective of the fan club is firstly to promote Arsenal Football Club locally and regionally. Secondly, he told Sports Nation that they also would like to be able to use the Arsenal FC brand as a means of raising funds for charitable causes here in Seychelles, and possibly with negotiation with the Arsenal head office, be able to send young kids to watch a match or even spend some time in the Arsenal Football Academy.

We are expecting good things to come from this first official international football fan club here in Seychelles. They appear to know exactly what they want to achieve as a group who has close ties with one of the great brands of football in the world. We at the Seychelles Nation wish them luck in their endeavors, and hope that they can make a change in any way they can here in Seychelles.

Mr Sopha had this to say to supporters of other international teams here in Seychelles: “We support those international teams by wearing their Jerseys and buying their products, but I think it’s time we move a step forward and become official members of those teams, so that we in return can sell Seychelles to them, in order for them to bring some benefits here in our country as well.”

K. B.