No grounds to complain you can't play in Bengaluru, sport!

While cricket and IPL may hog the limelight, Bengaluru's working professionals, especially from the IT sector, seem to be taking to football as a stressbuster, particularly during the weekends.

And of late many have joined teams battling it out under the floodlights in several localities of the city. Catering to the growing number of football enthusiasts, over a dozen futsals -  fields big enough  to host a five a -side game (as against the usual 11 -a- side game)-  have mushroomed across Bengaluru over the last couple of years, making the most of the smaller vacant plots available and drawing in the techies by droves, who enjoy the more than usual fast paced game played in a compact field .     

Among the most popular is “The Bull Ring,” an astroturf small-sided soccer field on a corner site measuring 6,500 sq. ft, which you can hardly miss as you drive  from Indiranagar towards M.G. Road via Swami Vivekananda Road.

The side nets are as high as 35 feet to keep the football well within the court and the powerful lights installed let the game go on until as late as 12 midnight. While some teams book their 5-a-side  play slots as much as four days in advance for games during the weekends here, the ground also sees a constant flow of players,  from the age of 6 to 65, enjoying practice sessions and playing  matches on weekdays as well.  

“Not everybody likes to enrol in a gym to remain fit and so a large number of those using these grounds for football are fitness freaks,” says 36-year-old Nikhil Reddy, who conceptualised these compact urban football arenas for smaller teams many years ago while on a tour of Europe and has invested Rs 45 lakh into his dream project.

“We have nailed it in terms of  expectations and are now looking at coming up with similar smaller football arenas in and around the city,” he says, explaining the idea is to  encourage small-sided football in a structured manner, providing standard facilities such as an astroturf playground, hygienic restrooms and changing rooms.

The rates range from Rs. 1000 to Rs. 2000 during peak times for an hour’s  game. So often teams of 10 members pool in Rs 200 each to  play a 5-a-side game of football for an hour. The arena is open to all from 6 am to 12 midnight.

 “We have football enthusiasts dropping in from different parts of the world such as Norway and England, who happen to be in  Bengaluru. At least 5000  people from different walks of life have come to the Bull Ring and kicked ball on the turf mat,” adds Nikhil happily.

To him it’s more than just business, he maintains, as he is keen on creating a platform for a football loving crowd to enjoy the game, which is far less popular than  cricket in the country.

The enterprising entrepreneur is also promoting the 5-a-side football game on his futsal by offering professional coaching to underprivileged youngsters and organising tournaments for them, to both encourage the game and players.

“Since we started on November 22 last year, we have had around 25 underprivileged youth training with us. We will meet their tournament fee, and find sponsors for their jerseys and other football apparel for the tournament,” he explains.

In the offing is a tournament,  EuroStreet ’16,  on June 4 for which registrations have already closed with 32 teams set to battle it out in a knockout league game. “The tournament will start and end in a day , which will witness some non-stop football action,” promises Nikhil.

With the 5-a-side tournaments catching on, even the 150 older football grounds  esconsced in the grounds of  clubs and academies of the city are  switching to them,  to popularise the game. So now you have Football Nation, a 6-a-side football arena  in T.C. Palya, Iblitz Sports Club, a football arena in Panathur with two astro-turf grounds to host 5-a-side matches, Tiger 5, a state-of-the art football arena on Kanakpura Road with two 5-a-side football arenas, Magnum Arena on Sarjapura main road, Smash & Sprint in Kudulu,  Enliven Sports in Dommasandra, the GameChanger in Mathikere and Play Mania in Bellandur where football enthusiasts are treated as pay-and-play customers.

Play timings at these arenas are from 6 am to about 12 pm, and game slots are priced from Rs. 450 for 30 minutes to around Rs. 2000 for an hour depending on the crowd and the time, and whether it is during the weekends and holidays.
The game then is clearly on. Although not as  popular as in Kolkata, the 5-a-side  match seems to be doing for football what IPL has done for cricket in the country  - making it trendy to play in the IT city.