Flags of Argentina, Brazil, and Portugal fluttering at every corner; towering cut-outs of Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar on every street—this isn't a scene from South America or Europe, but from a coastal state in southern India, often referred to as "God's own country."
Kerala is a state so obsessed with football that it inspired FIFA to film a forty-minute documentary covering the football fandom, and tweet about the ongoing "cut-out wars" in the region. We met with a group of Keralites in November, as FIFA fever was gripping the state, and discussed their plans for celebrating the World Cup.
Activities during FIFA
Many Keralites believe that FIFA is one of the festivals of Kerala along with Onam, Vishu, Christmas, and Eid. From putting on team jerseys and painting their faces, to hoisting the flags of their favorite teams, Keralites treat the World Cup as a grand celebration. Here's how people in Kerala plan to show their FIFA pride:
Many miss being in their hometown where they'd take part in these activities.
Why is football so popular in Kerala?
Kerala's love affair with football started in the 50s, which introduced football legends, such as T. Abdul Rahman, O. Chandrashekar Menon, V.P. Sathyan, and I.M.Vijayan, who would inspire younger generations to take up professional football. Football's popularity in Kerala is likely also due to the cultural similarities it shares with the Latin American countries, and the involvement of the church, which constantly encourages and nurtures young talents. We asked our respondents what they thought was the reason behind Kerala's love for football and here's what they had to say.
Maithanam - The story of football in Kerala
We asked Keralites what they thought about FIFA's documentary, Maithanam, which shows how deeply ingrained football is in Kerala's culture. We took the qualitative data we gathered and used the Word Cloud feature to gauge the collective opinion, and here's what we saw
We found that Malayalees (Keralites) are extremely happy, proud, and overwhelmed by the recognition. "Proud of my state and people who support this game, despite the absence of a national team on the world platform" was one of the responses. It is worth mentioning that Qatar, the host for FIFA 2022, has a Malayalee population of 445,000. Many are excited to watch the match live.
Wrapping up
Using Zoho Survey for our research, we identified the various reasons behind Kerala's obsession with football. FIFA fever is high as ever in Kerala this year too, with a major chunk of the population rooting for Argentina. Many fans who are away from home miss taking part in the celebrations. People are optimistic and believe that with the support from the government and the people, India will soon reach international football standards and participate in the upcoming FIFA world cups.
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