Flocking in large numbers to watch the stars

When the Indian Super League (ISL) kicked off in mid-October, it was treading into the unknown. Questions abounded. Will it survive? How will its quality be? Will fans turn up to watch?

For the city of Chennai, these questions acquired an even graver tone. In recent times, the city hasn’t boasted of a footballing culture vis-a-vis Kolkata or Kochi. Yet, according to official figures, on an average, 21,634 fans have watched the seven games held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (capacity 28,000).

Central to this has been the popularity of a bunch of marquee names — Robert Pires, Luis Garcia, Marco Materazzi et al — and their respective clubs’ fan associations, who, through their online presence, have played a small but important part in getting together football fanatics.

“For us, it’s all about getting to see these star players,” says Aditya Sundar, 27, part of the LFC Chennai Supporters Club. “This part has always been known to be cricket-mad while the rest of the country has moved on to football. Foreign players, even when they travel to India, don’t come here. They may go to Mumbai, Kolkata and the eastern parts. So, for us to see Garcia — a Champions League winner for Liverpool — was a big thing.”

It also helps that the football-watching crowd is predominantly young and hence more likely to be active on the social media.

“The social media activity has gone up by more than 30 per cent since the ISL started,” says Rahul Jayasurya, 24, admin and co-president of the MUFC — Chennai Facebook page. “Driven mostly by the school and college-going students.”

So far, these fans’ association with their idols has been restricted to the virtual medium. Now, with the ISL providing an opportunity to transcend this, it has been lapped up. A sizable chunk of Arsenal supporters were seen rooting for Pires during Chennaiyin FC’s match against FC Goa.

“We had no broad perspective about Indian players. We were Arsenal fans. So we came to see Pires,” says R. Karthik Deivarayan, 25, a member of the Arsenal Chennai Supporters Club. “For the Goa match we were around 250. People came from as far as Madurai and Karaikal. For all other games we bought around 50 tickets.”

However, these players will cease to be a novelty in the coming years. As aged as some are — on the wrong side of 30s and clearly over the hill — they might not even return. But, for the fan-club relationship to be intimate, the fans need a set of players to identify the club with and the club needs to become a part of the local community.

“Like the Chennai Super Kings, we need stability [of players],” says Karthik. “For that we need something more than three-month contracts. When Michael Hussey left, a whole lot of fans were disappointed. We need that kind of a connect. But, it takes time. We need better coaching and more grass-roots development.”

But, Aditya is confident. “Yes, we wanted Garcia to score, but we also wanted Chennai to win. Loyalty to a city-based club will come. Tickets are not costly. They start at 100 rupees.

“All sections of the people can come and watch. People have started discussing football and Chennaiyin FC.”

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-sports/flocking-in-large-numbers-to-watch-the-stars/article6690137.ece