Fan clubs of football in the city unite to cheer for home team Chennaiyin FC
Chennaiyin FC's co-owner Abhishek Bachchan takes a team selfie; (below) Co-owner Dhoni with coach Marco Materazzi. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: It’s finally time for India’s version of popular football leagues like the EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga to begin and though it will take many years for the Indian Super League (ISL) to reach the standards that supporters of Manchester United, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich have grown up watching, the excitement in the air is palpable! Could the ISL finally provide a brief break from the monotony and domination of cricket in the city?
All the pre-hype over Chennaiyin FC certainly seems to indicate so, the team’s Twitter contest to decide a suitable hashtag motto was met with overwhelming response, #PoduMachiGoalu! finally being chosen as the winner.
Jerseys are fast selling out; tickets are getting booked by the hundreds; fan clubs are being formed left, right, and centre, who cares if there’s no Ronaldo or Rooney, it’s all for the love of the beautiful game. Rahul Jayasurya, co-President of the MUFC Chennai fan club, says, “We were worried initially when Chennai was not a part of ISL, and we actually got in the last second, instead of Bangalore! It’s a treat for everyone here. In fact, we Manchester United fans have joined hands with Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea groups in the city and approached the organisers for season tickets. This is uniting all footie fanatics in the city; just like how players Anelka, Ljungberg, Pires and Silvestre etc, who were rivals in EPL, are now joining hands to grow football in India!”
If the level of fandom is surprising you, here’s an instance of another fan, a post graduate student, Parthiban Mohanmani, who stayed online all day following the team’s posts hoping to catch a glimpse of them. “And did I get lucky! As soon as I heard they were at the airport, I rushed there and was able to meet Mikael Silvestre who gave me a high five, and I saw the other players board the team bus! As a Manchester United fan, meeting a former player was a dream come true,” he says excitedly.
There are some like Rohana Jeyaraj who are sceptical about the tournament being over-dramatised by the presence of cricketers and Bollywood stars, “I’m just keeping fingers crossed it doesn’t resemble the IPL too much; and is more sport than entertainment. Though we have a legend like Marco Materazzi as player-coach, we all kept wishing the rumour of Ronaldinho joining us would have materialised. Sigh!”
And of course, one can’t forget the impact that Dhoni has had on popularity by becoming co-owner of the team. “Now, every CSK fan has automatically become a Chennaiyin fan too! However, it’s disappointing that the colour of the jerseys are blue – the team logo screams yellow and we’re all accustomed to the city being associated with the colour. Maybe next season, they’ll change it,” says fan Karthik Rajagopalan.
“Apart from witnessing marquee players like Elano and Mendoza, we’re of course eager to see other legends like Del Piero, Capdevila and others in action. Though the tournament starts tomorrow, we’re gonna have to wait for some time to see our first home game at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium fingers crossed it’s worth it!”
( Source : dc )
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