HT Kick Off: Sound of silence

It’s been phoebe years betwixt the IFA screen last and when this issue was being put together. In that time, I have heard or read nothing suggesting what happened last Saturday was organised. So, it will have to be assumed that it was organic. Half of the Salt Lake stadium kept mum for most of the match because it had wanted to.

There were no howls of protest when Mohun Bagan players were fouled, there was no getting behind the team that had not won a Kolkata derby, an occurrence as regular as the rain over the past five years, this term. There was no collective groan when Jason Cummings skied the penalty minutes before East Bengal went ahead. Barring spurts of noise when Lalengmawia Ralte equalised, Mohun Bagan fans, their banners removed, showed they had a voice by keeping mum.

How does a 136-year-old club, its history burnished by conquering colonisers, deal with that? Speech can be censored, anger contained or punished but indifference?

As extra-time loomed, the mood began to shift. Sensing that an IFA Shield title after 22 years could come their way, Mohun Bagan supporters called for Dimitri Petratos. During the tie-breaker, when Vishal Kaith asked for support, he got the crowd’s backing. It felt like Mohun Bagan fans were willing to forget if not forgive.

“Near our dressing room, some fans urged me to win the next derby, on October 31, in the Super Cup,” said Jose Molina, visibly relieved. One day before the final, the Mohun Bagan head coach had used most of the pre-match media conference to urge supporters to put their anger on hold “for 90 minutes.”

Supporters and fan groups have more say in Europe. They have forced clubs to abandon the European Super League and the plan to play La Liga in the USA. But apart from Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting, three of the oldest extant teams in Asia, clubs in India have no fan culture to speak of. For nearly a decade, Kerala Blasters would be backed by asea of yellow at home but it has dropped sharply.

There could be many reasons for clubs’ not having a lot of fans: lack of silverware, the absence of a community connect, especially after the novelty of the ISL wore off, and being new are but three. “We don’t have the tradition of older clubs. This is very difficult because for tradition you need time,” said Krunoslav Juric coach of Pyramids, the Egyptian club trying to be a third force in a country of Al Ahly and Zamalek supporters. This, after they won the African Champions League; the new club arranging for free tickets and transport for the final.

Success alone does not translate into having a fan base as JCT, Dempo and Mahindra United would know. It was why they could wind up without the fear of a backlash from fans, a reality no official of Kolkata’s Big Three is ever allowed to forget. Asked by journalists if he would consider disbanding the team, former Mohun Bagan president Swapan Sadhan Bose shot back: “Do you even think that is possible?”

Which makes it surprising that Mohun Bagan football team’s new owners and players had thought forfeiting another edition of the Asian Champions League 2 would be alright. That officials from India travelled to Iran last year and this on Asian Champions League 2 assignments made it difficult for Mohun Bagan supporters to understand the decision to pull out. That the Iran women’s team is in Shillong for friendlies against India and that no other team has followed Mohun Bagan in refusing to travel to Iran have not helped.

Neither has the realisation of what could have been. Brison Fernandes made history in a competition that brought Sadio Mane, Joao Felix, Inigo Martinez and Kingsley Coman to Goa. One that got Jorge Jesus – a legend as a coach at Benfica and the first foreigner to win an international competition, Copa Libertadores, with a Brazilian club (Flamengo) – to India.

Jesus’s assistant Joao de Deus helped Cape Verde grow as a national team between 2008 and 2010, beginning a process that has got the tiny African nation a World Cup berth. De Deus is not new to India, he was appointed NorthEast United head coach in 2017 and lasted two months. But this will feel different.

Supporters of the club that had got Pele to play at Eden Gardens in 1977, will miss the opportunity to see such stars if Mohun Bagan fail to get the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn what could be severe sanctions from Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It could lead to a fresh outburst.

Even if it does not, the point would have been made. And, hopefully, a lesson learnt: an Indian club fortunate enough to have supporters should not take them for granted.

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