Just when they thought they would finally get their partners’ undivided attention thanks to the end of club football season, poor women across the world now have to endure the cold winter or hot summer nights, depending on which side of the equator you are, all by themselves, thanks to the just began FIFA World Cup.
Wives, girlfriends and children are about to lose control of the remote control again. Those who cannot afford pay television will just have accept the reality that hubby will be spending a lot of nights out with the boys. In Botswana, the timing of the games could not have been worse.
Some games will start as late as midnight or as early as three in the morning and women have to prepare for lonely nights.
The nights of cuddling and keeping warm under cover will come to an end, thanks to the World Cup. No more tender loving care (TLC), the football fever is upon us.
Most women seem to have taken up the adage, “if you can’t beat them, join them.”
One such woman is Tumie Ramsden, who intends to join the fun and enjoy the World Cup.
“You cannot escape it,” she says, “the fever affects all of us whether we like it or not.”
But Ramsden, who admits she is not a football fan, says she will only get to watch the significant games.
“I will stay up and watch them with my husband although I might fall asleep while I’m at it.”
Back in 2010 she was a big fan of Uruguay’s Diego Forlan. This time around, Brazil’s Neymar is her favorite.
“Everybody is talking about him, and I think he’s cute.”
Dimpho Kabelo has also given up. “I watch the games with my partner.” For as long as her man watches the football at home she has no queries about the game. “I hate it when he comes home late especially if he comes drunk,” she says.
Although she usually falls asleep midway through the game, Kala Kgaimena also watches the World Cup with her son and husband. “Half the time I don’t even know what’s going on but I watch anyway. I only have a problem with some of the kick-off times.
“The teams play some really beautiful football,” says Naledi Ramasedi. “I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to watch.” Although she is not a big fan of the game Ramasedi says she does enjoy watching the World Cup with her family.
“Whenever my husband watches a game at home he calls up his friends and they mess up the living room with beer bottles and stuff,” says a disgruntled Keneilwe Morwadi. “And the men can be extremely loud with their jeering and cheering.”
Morwadi has no time for the game and if she had her way, they would have a TV room detached from the house where her husband and his friends could watch the game without disturbing her and the kids. However one looks at it, the World Cup means something to everyone. For most men, and a few women, the World Cup is football heaven. For the rest, it represents a month of hell on earth.
