Sevens football
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A brief history
From the Malabar Special Police of the Raj to 2019
Rayson Tennyson, August 31, 2019: The Times of India
From: Rayson Tennyson, August 31, 2019: The Times of India
When ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ won big at the 66th National Film Awards earlier this month, it introduced the rest of the country to a rollicking slice of Malayali culture: Sevens football.
In 2013, when Kerala hosted the coveted Santosh Trophy after eight years, excitement almost entirely bypassed the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium in Kochi that hosted the event. Most matches were played to near-empty galleries.
Football-mad spectators instead poured into a local playground about 20km from the city in north Paravur, swaddled by makeshift galleries and temporary floodlights, packing it beyond capacity.
That two versions of the beautiful game coincided and that the crush of fans favoured the not-so-glorified event speaks volumes about the craze called ‘seven-a-side’ football — Sevens —in Kerala.
There are no written records on how this version of football became so popular in the southern state, but it’s grown roots like no other. Football was brought to Kerala by British officers of Malabar Special Police nearly a century ago. MSP had a camp in Malappuram and soon ‘natives’ took to the sport. But they were forced to play in paddy fields, wherein lies the origin of Sevens football.
During the 1950s, nationallevel players who came to Kerala for the now-defunct Sait Nagjee annual tournament in Kozhikode participated in the local Sevens tournaments too in pursuit of some extra earnings.
By the 1970s, Sevens games had moved to enclosed grounds — with ticketed entry. As tournaments increased, complaints of non-payment to players poured in. To ensure fair play, Kerala Sevens Football Association was formed in 1983. KSFA now has 32 registered clubs. Apart from tournaments under KSFA, many local tournaments are also held in every nook and corner of Kerala, each with its own rules and regulations.
“KSFA clubs and players must register with the association and play by our rules. But local tournaments follow their own,” said Mohammed Ashraf Bava, KSFA general secretary.
On average 75-80 tournaments are held annually under KSFA’s aegis, each lasting three to four weeks. C Yashik, owner of club Fifa Manjeri, said, “Around 500-600 unregistered local tournaments too are held each year during the Sevens’ season which kicks off from November and lasts for almost six months.”
Just like the Indian Super League or the I-League, Sevens clubs too depend on foreign recruits, but it is mainly players from Africa. Their popularity is evident. In matches with African players, crowd numbers swell to even 18,000, making gate earnings of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh.
Remuneration to a player, foreign or local, is not fixed and depends on a footballer’s performance in a match. “We cannot say how much a player will earn per season. A player may get Rs 10,000 a match but if his performance is not satisfactory, remuneration can go down, or vice versa,” said Bava, who also played a role in ‘Sudani from Nigeria’. Some local players even make do with Rs 600 to Rs 1,000 for a match. Till recently, KSFA was at loggerheads with Kerala Football Association, the state body that wouldn’t give Sevens recognition. This, despite Sevens contributing much to Indian football — players IM Vijayan, CK Vineeth, Anas Edathodika, newcomer Ashique Kuruniyan to name a few.
Two years ago, though, KSFA’s resistance finally gave way to the sheer force of Sevens. It finally got official recognition.
