Soccer fevers rubs off on Bengulureans

Bengaluru: With the world enthralled by the beautiful game, football enthusiasts and turf owners in the city are witnessing a new trend – more non-regulars, including girls, hitting the fields more often, taking serious interest in the game.

While states such as Kerala, West Bengal and the North-East have hit headlines for good and bad reasons this season, Amal James, a regular player in the city observed more venue options cropping up since the beginning of this month.

“With the FIFA World Cup said to be the most watched sporting event of the planet, Bengalureans are trying to make it most played as well. As we have more options nearby as well nowadays, this helps me and my friends pick the best to sweat it out,” he said.

Delighted to see more people come in as the ball keeps rolling with much enthusiasm at Soccer City, Marathahalli, its Manager Madhu shares his observation that more on-field discussions before and after the game is taking place since last week.

“Now more techies are booking the courts, even on weekdays, bringing in new faces as well with the regular teams that come here. Slots are getting filled faster and we are happy to see that the game is being taken more seriously rather than as a pure leisure activity,” he said. Soccer city charges Rs 900 and 1000 per hour on weekdays and weekends respectively.

At Tiento Sports, Lalbagh Main Road, bookings have seen a 30 per cent increase nearly a week after the World Cup kicked off.

“Even though major hype was created much before the first kick-off, it took a week from then to see the effect work among enthusiasts in the city. While we mostly see five players per side, it has increased to seven now with even rolling substitutes ready at the sidelines. Girls becoming regulars in the game is also a positive effect,” said Senthil Raj, manager, Tiento charges Rs 1,600 per hour.

However, Chetan Reddy, who owns Smash & Sprint at Kudlu, has been adverse hit with bookings seeing an all-time low. “More options and facilities have started around us recently and youngsters are always ready to try and move to new places. We have the facility of letting teams play five each at a time and we charge Rs 900 per hour for the field,” he said. 

Tom Alfred, a regular badminton player who is now playing football on alternate days, said, “I’ve always been a trend-follower. Watching late night matches keenly, I and my friends try to incorporate various strategies used by world teams in our game now.”

With 40 matches out of 64 in this World Cup completed on Tuesday, enthusiasts and followers of the game in the city have booted up themselves to witness next level encounters in days to come till July 15.