ago,” says Bru. “It’s very important that
we qualify for the group. When you are
in the group, you know you will play the
good teams.
“When you are preparing to play a
game and you have not played for two
years it’s crazy. It’s terrible that there
is no league. In France or England you
could never stop the league because
of the money.”
Unfortunately Mauritius is no stranger
to the club game grinding to a halt. The
last hiatus was not due to a global
pandemic but was equally deadly.
Unlike most countries, football
in Mauritius developed on communal
grounds with teams like the Tamil
side Sunrise, Muslim Scouts and Fire
Brigade, whose support came from
the African Creole community.
Crowds were large, but communal
differences were often settled inside
football stadia. The government forced
clubs to drop communal names, but the
ties remained. In1999, a title decider
game between Scouts and Fire Brigade
led to a riot that spread to Port Louis
and a fire at the L’Amicale Casino
that killed seven people.
Football was stopped, all clubs were
dissolved and new teams formed based
on towns, but some ties have never
really gone away – Pamplemousse
draw support from Fire Brigade’s old
base and Grande Riviere remain linked
to Sunrise – and new teams have notgained strong following.
While there were no games being
played, interest in local football withered
and local fans switched to watching the
Premier League on TV. There are few
better examples of the damage that
the English top flight can inflict oneyewitness
Head coach...Tony
Francois (centre-right)
sings the national
anthem with his
staff(Credit: MFA)Opening goal...Kevin Bru
opens the scoring from the
penalty spot(Credit: MFA)