Travels through Malabar during World Cup season
India’s FIFA world ranking stands at 132 out of 200. Way back in October 2007, in the preliminary to the qualifying stage of the World Cup, we were knocked out by Lebanon!
We never had any football demi-gods. Our list of foot ball greats stops at 5 or 6, actually I cannot remember any names other than IM Vijayan and Bhaichung Bhutia. The game is hardly played in any of the states than Kerala, West Bengal and Goa. Still millions of Indians are die hard football fans.
FIFA World cup 2010 is full on and its the best time to travel through northern part of Kerala – The Malabar. The entire stretch is decorated with banners and flags of various World cup football playing nations.
This World cup season, Sandeep Varma, a Chennai-based Malayali businessman, will be traveling the entire Malabar area of Kerala, to celebrate the spirit of FIFA World cup with the true fans of the game and bring interesting stories and images of them.
To be continued….
Sandeep Varma writes for FootballKerala.com
