A new football super league has one goal: Get Kerala back on its feet

The name Sergio Barboza may hardly ring a bell among most football enthusiasts. He is a winger from Rio de Janeiro, with twinkling feet and flashy manoeuvres, though his audience had been largely the club devout in far-flung footballing destinations such as San Jose, Guatemala City, Laos and Delhi.

But KA Abubakkar, a patron of sevens clubs in Kerala’s Manjeri, is thrilled about watching the obscure Brazilian’s oeuvre of skills. “Afterall, he is from Brazil,” he says.

Barboza is among those slated to turn up for Malappuram FC in the inaugural edition to the Super League Kerala (SLK) starting September 7— in time to be come part of the Onam spread, the harvest festival that falls on September 15.

The much-awaited 45-day football feast will have games in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Manjeri and Kozhikode. The sprinkling of football imports, mostly from Spain and Latin America, has tickled the excitement of the state, which is just recovering from the loss the heavy monsoon had wreaked.

“Nothing unites Kerala more than tragedies and football,” the 65-year-old Abubakkar, are vered figure in the sevens circuit, says.

The buzz around the league, styled in the IPL-ISL template, featuring six franchises, starring players, coaches and support staff from around the globe, is already bubbling.

A truck with a portable turf and net is criss-crossing the state, stopping for those who want a quick shy on goal. Scoring a goal though is hard. There is a circular ring in the middle of the net through which one has to pass the ball.

Meanwhile, Instagram walls of the clubs with imaginative crests, the number of subscribers soaring through the roof with every click, is a jumble of club anthems (some featuring in-vogue rap bands), snatches of training sessions, and some of the footballers or coaches struggling to pronounce the names of their franchises. Take, for instance, Thiruvananthapuram Kombans.

The cities and grounds are revving up, too—seats tidied up after months in slumber, grass trimmed after the heavy monsoon, grim buildings rendered a fresh coat of shine and giant flex boards of players raised.

A first-of-its-kind league in the state, its sole footprint in the nation-wide franchise-league boom being the Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League football, it conforms to the usual pattern of other leagues. A pair of young superstars from the Malayalam film industry, are tired tennis legend with an expanding business empire, members of an erstwhile royal family, prominent business groups, and a former Australian footballer, comprise the owner’s board of the league, a joint initiative of the Kerala Football Association and Unified Football Sports Development Private Limited.

The league has the ingredients to be a blockbuster, but the larger concern, rather a wish, is whether it could make Kerala a force again in football. From a state that had a ceaseless supply chain of quality footballers, it has transformed into a football consuming state. “More people watch football than play it now,” the legendary I M Vijayan had once told this newspaper. The number of tournaments had dwindled; the fervour springs only during global events or ISL.

The Super League could change the trajectory, many feel.

Former Kerala stalwart and assistant coach of Forca Kochi, Jo Paul Ancheri, says: “Back in our days, there used to be a lot of tournaments from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod, which gave us a lot of exposure. It’s not the case now, there are far fewer tournaments. I have heard people complain that there are players, but there are no avenues for them to show their talent. SLK could change this, because there is a lot of focus on youth.”

The stipulations are designed in such a way that there is emphasis on youth and local flavour. A team canfield only four overseas players (most of them were showcasing their tricks in lower division leagues and some with a fair amount of experience on the Indian circuit),and should field at least two junior players. “The scouting of teenagers has been massive, though it should be maintained for several years for results to show. We have been looking at U-14 players with an eye to polish them and make them ready for the senior level in two-three years,” he says.

Most clubs began to scout as early as last December. Thousands attempted a camp in Kozhikode last year, watched on by overseas coaches. But the overriding fear in some quarters is whether the emphasis on local players would get diluted over the years. More cynically, whether it would diminish the status of the Kerala Premier League.

The fear is even more relevant as three of the SLK franchises are partly owned by KPL sides. Scattered resources and priorities could disarray teams in the KPL. But Ebin Rose, coach of Kovalam FC, that has stakes in Thiruvananthapuram Kombans FC allays the fear. “We would continue running Kovalam FC with our philosophy of grooming youngsters from the coastal belt. The Super League would be a step up. Both could not only coexist but also help each other in attaining the big goal of producing high quality players consistently as we once did,” he says.

For all the potential teething woes, Ebin feels SLK could restore the golden days of football in the state if its ticks to its vision. “There are four things it could bring. More money (at least Rs 5 crore a club), more exposure and most importantly a regional feel. The last thing is important. Because regional rivalry is the foundation of leagues world over. The premier league has not quite succeeded at that, but the super league could galvanise the sentiment. It might not happen in a year, but over several years it could evolve. Then it could improve the infrastructure and revive old nurseries of the sport like Thiruvananthapuram. All I don’t
want to see is the league being scrapped after a couple of years,” he says.

Such existential pangs don’t bother Abubakkar. “I just want to see my Brazilian boy, ”he says.

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