AFC Asian Cup 2023: Kerala’s love for football helps the ‘beautiful game’ bloom again in the desert

Football fans from Kerala, most of whom are now settled in Qatar, have rekindled the love for the beautiful game during the quadrennial contest in Qatar.

Among the chaos of jubilation, fans from a small state of India ensured that football did not lose any of its pomposity, even in the hot afternoons. | Photo Credit: Neeladri Bhattacharjee

The AFC Asian Cup, the World Cup of Asia, made Qatar the centre stage of international football yet again.

In 2022, the Gulf nation had become the first host from the Arab World to host the FIFA World Cup. Nothing goes beyond the stature of it on the international stage.

But 13 months later, like a Horcrux of the tournament coming to life, the Asian Cup, arrived with drums and cheers from thousands of football aficionados in and around Doha, especially around the stadiums.

While some arrived with flags, others had names printed on the back of their shirts. But among the chaos of jubilation, fans from a small state of India ensured that football did not lose any of its pomposity, even in the hot afternoons.

Hours before the kick-off of the opening match at the Lusail Stadium, which hosted the final of the FIFA World Cup, drums made the air around crackle with joy.

Football fans from Kerala, most of whom are now settled in Qatar, were busy entertaining fans who had turned up in numbers for the opening match between the host and Lebanon.

Tempos were shuffled, heads were banged and applause embraced a group of boys clad in yellow shirts that read ‘Qatar Manjapadda’.

| Video Credit: Neeladri Bhattacharjee

The ‘Manjappada’ is the biggest fan club of the Indian Super League club, Kerala Blasters, and is known around the country for its raucous cheer and remarkable support.

And the beats in Qatar made sure that the world stopped and watched a part of them thousands of miles away from home.

“We have been here from 2017. When we started, we were a small team. But now we have a huge set of people, which goes up to 100 (for large performances). We have performed in the Qatar Super League, the Arab Cup and the World Cup,” says Niyaz who is originally from Kozhikode.

“We are an accredited team for this tournament. At the time of the World Cup too, we had performed in all stadiums and were also in the victory parade for Lionel Messi’s Argentina. We are planning to go and perform at the Kerala Blasters ground (Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium) soon.

The Manjappadas were not the only music from Kerala around Lusail.

About 100 metres away from them stood Shaifuddin, a flutist, originally from Malappuram. He starts with ‘Waka Waka’, one of the theme songs of FIFA World Cup 2010, moves to ‘Cup of Life’, the theme song of the 1998 World Cup and then plays ‘We are the Dreamers’, a theme song of the latest edition of the tournament.

Shaifuddin, a flutist from Malappuram, is a plumber by profession and has been in Qatar since 2008. | Photo Credit: Neeladri Bhattacharjee

Shaifuddin, 43, is a plumber by profession. He has been in Qatar since 2008 and can afford to come to India only once a year. He started learning flute at a madrasa ( a religious educational institution) at the age of 15 and that stayed with him since.

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“I play it because I like playing it and I like football,” he says and then asks, “Is there any chance of getting a ticket? The people at counters are saying there is nothing left.”

According to the Kerala government, about 300,000 of Qatar’s 3 million population, approximately 10 percent, are from the state, living as expatriates with or without their families. 

They constitute almost half of the entire Indian population in Qatar, many of whom turned up for India’s game against Australia at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium.

And when Sunil Chhetri darted up the pitch, jumping to stick his head out for a header off Nikhil Pooojary’s cross, the whole stadium roared and sighed in a span of 10 seconds.

Shaifuddin may or may not have been one of them but he is one of the many who have brought Kerala’s football fever to the Arab nation, helping the beautiful game bloom in the desert once more.