Football fans in India celebrated FIFA World cup 2022 like no one and expecting country’s participation in upcoming year

2022 was indeed a painful year when it started with Russia invaded Ukraine. Thousands were killed and millions were forced to take shelters under neighboring countries. According to the information, more than 14 million Ukrainians were displaced during the ongoing war. But by the end, it became a year to remember, especially for football fans across the world. With the beginning of FIFA World cup on 20^th November 2022, Qatar was the nerve Centre of football fans. 32 national teams participated at international football tournament in Qatar that made it the first Arab country to host it. It was 22^nd edition of the competition that had schedules for 64 matches.

Attracting audience for the tournament was assumed doubtful this time considering several restrictions imposed by Qatar administration including binoculars, tripods, monopods, keep shirts on, no alcohol, musical instruments etc. Apart from these rules, supporters had to follow local laws too to stay in the country regarding LGBTQ+ rights, alcohol, and sex, but the occupancy percentage shocked everybody. According to the FIFA official figures, average overall match attendance reached 94 % during the first group matches, where the numbers reached the sale of 3 million tickets. Brazil vs. Serbia was the most attended FIFA world cup match, where Brazil beats Serbia by 2-0. First edition of the match recorded higher percentage of audience comparing to 2018 edition in Russia.

With unexpected crowd at the stadium, 2022 FIFA world cup also witnessed whopping number of digital viewers in India. 32 million Indians registered JioCinema app to watch the match between Argentina and France. Statement coming from Viacom18, owner of JioCinema app said that for the first time digital viewership surpassed television numbers for a global sports event. Anil Jayaraj, CEO of Viacom 18 Sports said, ‘The tournament became the most-watched global sports event on digital where India has not participated. This demonstrates the power of digital and the preference viewers and fans have shown to consume their favorite events’, as per media report.

Although Cricket is the most popular sports in India, Football too has its decent number of audience in India. West Bengal, North-East and South India have the higher figure of Indian football fans. As per the BARC data for Cable and Satellites (CS) 2+audience, in terms of cumulative reach the top 5 regions of India were Kerala (13.1 million), West Bengal (8.69 million), Assam/North-East/Sikkim (7.1 million), Tamil Nadu/Puducherry (2.7 million) and Maharashtra/Goa (2.3 million)- ET report based. West Bengal is known as a hub of football fans. During the tournament, Kolkata’s street was seen all fancied up by players cut outs, banners, flags and graffiti. Amitava Sen is an engineer by profession and a crazy football fan by heart from Kolkata. He is 42 years old and thinks it is the right age to dedicate oneself to sports. He said, ‘I love playing football since I was 12 years old. Earlier, it was just a game that became passion during my high school days, but due to no bright future of football in India, my parents advised me to choose another field. Even though I became an engineer, my love for football will always be there. It is very personal and emotional to me. And carrying this passion forward to this age has helped me physically and mentally. I play at weekends or whenever I get time.’

Amitava talked about why Bengalis are so obsessed with the game. He told EAT news, ‘You ask any Bengali in the world about football, they know most of it. Here you’ll see kids playing football on streets, parks, school. There is no other game they play with so much enthusiasm. It is because we had players like Subrata Bhattacharya, Sudip Chatterjee, Subhash Bhowmick, Chuni Goswami and many others. Teams like East Bengal, ATK Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan hailing from the city are making Bengali football fans even more proud across the country.’ Amitava is a religious fan of Argentina and is also a part of football fan club. They hold meet ups every month and screened each match of FIFA World cup at the hall. Watching India in FIFA World cup would be a dream for every Indian. All India Football federation should push this sport to nurture football culture in India.

Amitava said a lot has to be done, monetary support, becoming physically stronger, infrastructure, international exposure, but significantly transforming it into a complete sports culture is what actually needed, here. Recently, president of FIFA Gianni Infantino had some encouraging words for Indian football team that gave a little hope to all the fans. In an Instagram live session, when it is asked, ‘Will India going to be a part of 2026? 1.5 billion people want to see them’, to which he responded, ‘Well, I hope very soon. The next men’s World cup is with 48 teams instead of 32. So India obviously has well a chance to qualify (as other countries)’. Later he added, ‘What I can assure all our fans in India is that we are heavily investing in Indian football to make it big. Such a big country needs to have great football competition and a great football team. So we are working on that.’

Watching Indian football team in FIFA World cup definitely will be a treat for every Indian football fan. But till then, football fans like Amitava are keeping their love for the game intact.