Is it possible to bring together football fans of archrivals Manchester United and Liverpool or Real Madrid and Barcelona sans the animosity that they hold against one another?
With their recent drubbing of Thailand in the Asia Football Cup, the Indian football team, dubbed the Blue Tigers, seems to have provided a common theme for fans across the State and even outside, though divided by their European club affiliations, to unite and root for one team.
Bleeding Blues, a WhatsApp group dedicated to Blue Tigers, launched on Monday has already attracted over 100 members. “It is high time a group for Indian football team along the lines of similar groups for fans of European clubs was formed. The idea is to provide a common platform for discussing Indian football and sharing everything, including fixtures and schedules,” says Liyons Jos, the group admin who dreams of making it a pan-India initiative.
The group also plans to organise screenings of Indian matches starting with the screening of the game against the UAE on Thursday at ChaiCofi, a coffee shop, at Kaloor here. Facebook and Instagram pages will follow later this week.
Already Bleeding Blues boasts fans of Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Bayern Munich joined through the link, which has been sent to WhatsApp fan groups of various European clubs.
“Fans are the energy and backbone of any team and player and technology-driven fans’ initiative in keeping with changing times will only help Indian football. Screenings will also help popularise Indian players among the public,” says C.V. Pappachan, one of the legends of Kerala football.
For a football crazy State that celebrates World Cup football by remaining glued to television screens at odd times in colours of teams they follow, supporting the Indian team should come natural.
“When we are able to support a foreign country with such vigour, we should be able to support our national team with greater enthusiasm. I always wanted to be part of such a group where I can actively talk about the national team,” says Deepak Babu, a football fan from Alappuzha who is now doing his postgraduation in sports medicine at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala.