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How Football Fandom Persists in South Asia by Sapan Taneja
“FIFA World cup fever has hit Kerala, giant cut-outs of Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi popped up on a local river ahead of the tournament,” reads a tweet posted by the governing body of football, FIFA.
Nousheer Nellikode, a die hard fan of the Argentine national team, gathered support and finances from his village to raise money to place a large 30 foot cutout of Lionel Messi along a river at Pullavoor in Kozhikode district in the Indian state of Kerala. To counter this, a rival fan group would raise a 40 foot banner of Neymar right next to Messi’s. Soon after, a 45 foot cutout of Ronaldo would follow from another set of supporters. The whole incident played out like a scene from a Malyali comedy film and would grab the attention of FIFA prompting the aforementioned tweet.
This peculiar anecdote is of course one of many. A friend visiting Kochi at the time of the World Cup in 2022 remarked at seeing large crowds gathered inside and outside bars and restaurants trying to catch a glimpse of the action. Cafes and restaurants listed food items named after players and were filled with intense football discourse. And naturally, disputes and quarrels were a common sight too. Another story from Bangladesh described a pizza shop owner, a bold and confident Argentina fan, who promised to give out free pizza if Saudi Arabia were to shock the world and beat Argentina. When they did, the owner backed down from the claim and only gave away 70.
Similar stories would be shared across social media from cities and towns of Bengal, Goa, the North East and Bangladesh. Flags, jerseys, posters, and murals of other nations adorn streets and homes as if they are our own. The most common colours being the blue and white Argentina, and the yellow and green of Brazil. All of these highlight a peculiar, yet unrelenting fandom. In a region where the zeitgeist of sports is firmly dominated by cricket, there exists a deep heritage and lore around football too. The frenzied scenes around the World Cup in 2022 only carry forward this.
On July 29, 1911, a crowd of nearly 50,000 gathered at the Calcutta Football Grounds to witness a friendly football match between Mohun Bagan, a fledgling local club, and a team of British soldiers - the Ghaziabad-based East Yorkshire Regiment. The game would become one of the most monumental achievements in Indian football history with the Indian team beating their opposition 2-1.
Few reports from the time describe the scenes post the game: