Football Fever: Recollecting Kerala's Craze For The Sport Amidst Cut-Out Wars & World Cup Debates

Ahead of the FIFA World Cup, Kerala and its football fanatics are all geared up to welcome the game. During every season, the streets of Kerala are adorned with cut-outs, posters, and banners of every team, and fans gather to cheer the teams and sing the anthems. This year, the fervour was flagged off by a video released by the Mollywood celebrity Mohanlal in collaboration with director TK Rajeev Kumar and singer Hesham Abdul Wahab. Documenting the football craze in the northern district of Malappuram, the video summarises the state's love for the sport. Soon enough, the tribute became the number one trending video on Youtube, with views flooding in.

Kerala happens to be among the few states in India that possess a craze for football, even more than the popularly watched game of cricket. Multiple media houses over the years have documented the semblance of the northern stretch of Kerala with that of the football-crazed streets of South Africa and Brazil. With the big game approaching soon, The Logical Indian looks back at Kerala's love for football and the cut-out war that is raging on their streets.

Santosh Trophy To FIFA - Kerala's Love For Football

Kerala's passion for the game is known worldwide and has many times been noted by the official FIFA handles as well. In the hours leading to the World Cup, the villages and cities across Kerala can be seen erupting in celebrations. Fans fill in the streets with roadshows, loud music, celebratory dances, and so on. Their love for the game traces back in history from the time when they competed at the legendary Santosh Trophy championships to the year 2022 when Kerala has been crowned the current national champions of the game.

Talking about it, the president of the District Sports Council in Ernakulam, P V Sreenijan, said, "The Mohun Bagan and East Bengal clubs, along with the 1973 Santosh Trophy win, among other factors attracted a whole generation towards football." Adding on to it, he stated that they have their interests invested in international level football as well and are known to be a bunch who worship iconic players such as Maradona and Pele.

This, he believes, was due to the vast history of Argentina and literature on Latin American football that was read by Keralites through books and newspapers. This continued to reflect in the state and was seen in the year 2021 when Argentina lifted the Copa America cup. The streets of Kerala were reportedly as charged as any other Latin American street, and videos of the same were circulated and shared even by the international sports channel ESPN Argentina.

A report by The Print quoted a popular social media user @Advaidism, who wrote "Kerala hosted the Santosh Trophy in the 1950s and won it in the 1970s. Kerala enjoyed a golden age from 1985 to 1995 by making it to Santhosh Trophy finals seven times consecutively, and football became an iconic sport ever since in the south Indian state." Over the years, the state encouraged and produced talented footballers, including I M Vijayan, V P Sathyan, C V Pappachan, and C K Vineeth.

Talking further about the state's paradoxical love for football when the rest of the country stays glued to cricket matches, he says, "the passion for football is so high in Kerala that before each FIFA world cup, half of the state supports Brazil while the other half will root for the Argentinian football team." Confirming this theory is the customary friendly banter shared by users from the two different teams on social media during every season.

This season interestingly saw two legislators engage in social media debate about which team would take home the world cup. Breaking apart from their usual political line of debates, State Education Minister V Sivankutty, a Brazil fan, and former state minister MM Mani an Argentina fan extended their support to the teams. Sivankutty was seen cheering for Brazil, saying they would lift this edition's World Cup. Responding to this, MM Mani commented that he hopes that Brazil will not have to catch the first return flight from Qatar. Soon enough, other members of the legislative assembly, P Mammikutty, M Vijin, VK Prasanth, KM Sachindev, KT Jaleel, and many others, joined in cheering for the teams.

Cut-Out War That Grabbed FIFA's Attention

Building on the soccer mania ahead of the World Cup, Kerala made the headlines after an Argentinian soccer team fans group erected a 30-foot-tall cut-out of Messi over a small islet in a river in the Pullavoor village. Taking the cue, the rival Brazil fans placed a 40-foot-tall cut-out of Neymar Jr along the banks of the river as a response to the Argentina fans. Both these cut-outs were then overshadowed by a 45-foot tall Cristiano Ronaldo cut-out wearing the Portugal jersey.

The image of the three cut-outs towering in the river went viral and was even tweeted by the official handle of FIFA with the caption "#FIFAWorldCup fever has hit Kerala." Tweeting about the same, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan thanked the international football body for "acknowledging our unmatched passion for the sport." The images continue to make rounds on official fan pages and have been retweeted by over eight thousand users.

#FIFAWorldCup fever has hit Kerala 🇮🇳

Giant cutouts of Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi popped up on a local river ahead of the tournament.

12 days to go until #Qatar2022 🏆 pic.twitter.com/29yEKQvln5

— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) November 8, 2022

However, the sport and its fanatics have an equal share of critics as well. A lawyer cum activist has filed a complaint with the Chathamangalam panchayath to remove the cut-outs with the claim that they are obstructing the natural flow of the river. Both the local body and municipal authorities are conflicted in their decision regarding the cut-outs. MLA PTA Rahim extended his support to the fan groups and said that the game unites people across countries and languages, and he would be standing with the joy of football fans. Rahim also tweeted that he had visited the site of the cut-outs and found that the petitioner's arguments were baseless. With the debates ongoing and bringing together people from different realms, Kerala continues to celebrate and criticise their love for the sport.

Also Read: Passing The Ball To Future Generations: Kerala Government To Offer Basic Football Training To One Lakh Children