FIFA World Cup Fever In India: Gali Gali Football Shootball

If you keep faith in the Beautiful Game, the FIFA World Cup would arrive every four years as manna from heaven, a cornucopia that is soul food as well as sensual indulgence. While Indian football fans have not thrown up a team their countrymen could root for, they have absorbed, nay inhered, world football through the decades. The nature of fandom has changed too바카라�from those who fought over broadsheets to read about 바카라�what happened last night바카라� to those who can now plug a pair of earphones into their smartphones and transport themselves into a live game. Football has been changing too, with the technology revolution laying its hand on the techniques of football, as on everything else. Yet, in its essence, it바카라�s still what a lay observer will say it is: 22 individuals on a lush field running after a leather orb.

It is not that simple though, isn바카라�t it? The origins of provincial partisanship are layered enough. The Indian fan from Bengal always had the 바카라�big three바카라� of East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting to expend their energy on, though greats like Hungary바카라�s Ferenc Puskas were also celebrated. With the dwindling of Indian footballing prowess on the world stage from the 바카라�60s, the fan바카라�s association with the game has gone through a radical shift. Experts believe the game-changer in the post-War World Cup era to be the allure of watching Maradona running defences ragged in Mexico on colour TV in 1986.

Telstar was the first official World Cup ball supplied by Adidas in 1970 and they have been doing it ever since. The Jabulani used in 2010 was very controversial, while the one used in Brazil in 2014 was called the Brazuca.

바카라�It started in 1958, with Pele and Garrincha,바카라� says football writer Novy Kapadia. He says that prior to that the WC had been won by 바카라�predominantly White teams바카라� and the common belief was that 바카라�Blacks don바카라�t have the temperament to last a full world cup바카라�, something that was said about the West Indies cricket team of that era as well. 바카라�Brazil shattered that.바카라�

The Indian fan바카라�s identification바카라�at an elemental, visceral level바카라�with the Latin American magicians, says Kapadia, started in Calcutta, 바카라�which always had a passion for football, besides being a revolutionary city with a shared passion for Marxism. So, Brazil became a anti-colonial force, showing the White man his place. It was also the kind of football Calcutta clubs used to play, for we couldn바카라�t play the physical game.바카라� Referencing another football hub, Kapadia says Goa, too, has backed Brazil with their 바카라�Portuguese past바카라�. 바카라�In the 바카라�50s and the 바카라�60s, when I was growing up, India supported only one country, and that was Brazil,바카라� he says.

Their World

The WC invades a restaurant kitchen in Delhi바카라�s Humayunpur

Photograph by Suresh Pandey

Football writer Jaydeep Basu mostly agrees. 바카라�We did have some love for Brazil. It was in those pre-바카라�92 days. Those days, we still had some sympathy for the downtrodden,바카라� he says, adding that India바카라�s Third World status and Brazil바카라�s success led us to have a 바카라�soft corner for them바카라�.

The radio had a stranglehold바카라�with imagination in lieu of colour and picture바카라�over the earliest generation of football fans following the action on a corner of a foreign pitch. Basu mentions that the first live World Cup game he saw was in 1982, while earlier he used to follow them on BBC. 바카라�WC was not exactly a great event till 1982, when they started telecasting it,바카라� he says, mentioning that it became a 바카라�rage바카라� on TV. In 1982, there was more coverage, but the World Cup was first telecast, from the semis, in 1978. In 1986, then PM Rajiv Gandhi바카라�s intervention ensured the Mexico World Cup was telecast in full, and in colour.

Women at a kickabout on a paddy field in Baska, Assam

Photograph by PTI

Kapadia refers to the BBC World Service as a 바카라�saviour바카라�, saying, 바카라�My generation never saw the World Cup, we only heard it on radio. Prior to that we used to go to the British Council to read.바카라� He recalls how they relied on two-minute newsreels made by the Films Division, where they saw Geoff Hurst바카라�s hattrick win the 1966 edition for England and that goal by Carlos Alberto from Pele바카라�s pass. 바카라�I think the first WC Doordardshan broadcast, five days after the final, was Germany vs Netherlands in 1974, close to 11 at night, which football lovers watched on black-and-white,바카라� he reminisces. Kapadia says his first live WC games were in 1982, while the next 바카라�big change바카라� was the heavenly marriage of Maradona and colour TV. 바카라�It was the first time urban India had colour TV and almost all of the WC was live. There was also the genius of Maradona and that바카라�s how people became Argentina fans. Now, Calcutta itself is divided between Brazil and Argentina.바카라�

바카라�1986 was my first live WC; God바카라�s World Cup as I call it. We didn바카라�t have a TV at home and the WC was in Mexico, so the games would kick off at two at night. We바카라�d go to someone바카라�s house who had a colour TV,바카라� says a football enthusiast.

Fans pose before a Neymar grafitti in Calcutta

Photograph by Sandipan Chatterjee

Diego바카라�s double-take on England in 바카라�86 will probably be etched in the minds of generations to come바카라�it was the beginning of the explosion of the football industry, with media and live coverage that is unmatched in any other world sport. The 바카라�90s brought European club football courtesy satellite TV and names like Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid entered our football lexicon.

With that started football바카라�s slow saturation over the Indian landscape. Earlier, it was the 바카라�hubs바카라� that watched it바카라�West Bengal, the Northeast, Kerala and Goa. After satellite TV바카라�s massive ingress, India started becoming a football nation. Not in terms of infrastructure, or ability on the pitch, but in terms of interacting with the game. Current fans바카라�there are legions of them바카라�are gluttons for European club soccer. Devvrat Badoni, 27, a teacher and football fan whose first experience of the a live WC game was in 1998, concurs, and thus exhibits how our old, South American loyalties were now on slippery ground. 바카라�Between 1998 and 2008, Indians revolved mostly around England, as we were exposed to the Premier League. The 2002 WC was all Ronaldo and Beckham for us,바카라� says Badoni, mentioning that loyalties again shifted when the La Liga from Spain and other European leagues were telecast, not to mention the mothership바카라�the Champions League. 바카라�Now the Indian fan is more divided and plays more football,바카라� he opines.

A pair of jackfruits get a partisan jacket in Kozhikode, Kerala

바카라�My first brush with the World Cup was in 2002,바카라� says Sachin Kumar, a marketing professional. He says he 바카라�kind of바카라� backed England in 2006 바카라�due to Steven Gerrard바카라� (then of Liverpool), saying the game-changer was the 2005 Champions League final, where a Liverpool side came back from 0-3 down against AC Milan to win it. His loyalties again lay with England in 2010, while in 2014, he just wanted to watch 바카라�good football바카라�. Badoni mentions that he switched from backing England in 2002 to the Netherlands, 바카라�who sadly didn바카라�t qualify바카라� for Russia.

Shivang Sah, a marketing professional based in Dubai who started watching the EPL in 2002, and so supported England in 2006, says he wants either of Brazil or Argentina to win. 바카라�I want good football,바카라� he says.

A Brazil fan stamps his scooter with his team바카라�s stars in Kozhikode

Photograph by Badir Sadique

바카라�You saw the likes of Beckham, who is handsome and rich, and developed an affinity for him. Then Barcelona, Spain and Germany came in and loyalites were more spread out. Now its more broad-based, in much of northern India it바카라�s about Europe,바카라� says Novy Kapadia.

Dedicated sports channels and saturation media coverage have meant protracted exposure to the highest standards of play. A teenager now knows what a fully-fit Mohamed Salah brings to the table for Egypt after following his exploits for Liverpool in England and Europe. Basu reckons that while this is beneficial in terms of exposing an audience to a level of play, it may be detrimental in the long run.

바카라�If the novelty of WC was lost, it wasn바카라�t because of the TV coverage; it was because of the money that came into European football. Lots of great players, including Pele, played in their home country바카라�that was the maximum they could earn. Now, every top Latin American player is in Europe,바카라� says Basu. As a result, 바카라�there is little difference바카라�once almost civilisational바카라�between the South American and European styles of football. Now if people talk about the Latin American style, it is only rhetoric. It is completely European now.바카라�

In Icchapore, near Calcutta, residence, tea shop and supporters parade Argentinian stripes

Photograph by Sandipan Chatterjee

Basu also isn바카라�t a fan of the culture that this exposure has spawned. 바카라�The biggest problem in Southeast and East Asia are repeat telecasts of matches, which sends you into a make-believe world. Result: football from India doesn바카라�t get space. The Barcelona or EPL standard has been reached after nearly 100 years of hard work and 50 years of terrific youth development. We are dazzled by the amazing skill on show, but no one is telling us how this was achieved. So, when a 10-year-old wears Rs 8,000 boots and a Real Madrid jersey, he thinks that will take him to that level. There are 100 steps in-between.바카라�

Basu바카라�s penetrating, if depressing, insight, wouldn바카라�t have occured to the average passionate Indian fan on a crescendo of football fever. For we are more than viewers; in our chosen colours we would embody, over the next four weeks, the purest patriotism there ever can be.