10 Glorious Years of IFN

namewtheld

Dear friends,

This 31st January, IFN completed 10 glorious years and what a journey it has been! When we started this forum, we never thought that it would become the biggest hub/adda of passionate Indian football fans (and the silently visiting Indian football professionals😁). This forum has become the treasure trove of Indian football wisdom, history and expertise. Who can deny that discussions here may have influenced football transfers, scouting of foreign players and heck even team selections! On this occasion I would like to share the story of how IFN was born and some trivia.

Towards the end of 2010, I came in touch with @rudra who was in NCBS, Bangalore and had come to visit TIFR, Mumbai where I studied. Later on I realised that he is the same person I interacted with on Orkut IFF group since long. Orkut was dying at that time and founders of the IFF group were delaying the 'official' website where we all were supposed to move, possibly due to disagreements over ownership etc.

In December 2010, I visited NCBS for a weeklong course. That was the time I proposed the idea of having an Indian football forum. Rudra readily agreed. Both of us being biologists, it was a huge learning curve but within a month, with merely Rs 1700 investment and long sleepless nights of hard work, the forum was there! 

Initially we created multiple accounts and discussed Indian football under different usernames, because no one likes inactive forum 😉. Then slowly folks from Orkut group joined in and the rest is history.

Also, ever wondered why @Deb_Ban, @gaffertape, @Ronny and some others have the same profile pic? Back when in Jan 2011 I was deciding on the appearance of the forum, I wanted users to have a default 'unknown face' pic. So I googled the term and selected that same pic. Of course, I couldn't find a way to make it default, so it was manually added after each user joined.

Anyway, I am not able to be as active on this forum and therefore the delay in writing this post, so apologies for that.
Best wishes.

indian_gooner

wow. reading this brought me memories of college days and therafter. and IFF group on orkut was the best till date. So many dicussions. all my mind was to go into college computing facility in lunch break to see the discussions.

When IFN was started, I found the design to be awkard and it was very difficult to understand the "forum" stuff.

Straight outta college with no job made be be very active on this forum. also the forum itself became large discussions during WCQ for 2014 in 2011 where we lost to UAE. Also we played many friendlies with relatively new nations like Trindand&Tobago, Zamibia,Malaysia,Qatar etc. the ISL which is being held now was discussed activey in 2011 regarding how we were pissed of with shtty clubs with corporte names and empty stadiums.

We had members like arsenalfan and varun m kochi who got into debates for MLS like league in INDIA.

So So so many visionary discussions were beign held in which i had written about a proper league, AFC wcq like UEFA. however those disapperead after a server crash incident.

I wish some old active members who gave very valuable contibutins to come back and partiicpate. Although we are busy in life, we may not be active as earlier but weekly once visting or during indian nt matches.

debarghya89

I dont exactly remember how i came to know of this forum. But the initial days were exciting as i never had any orkut account and had never participated in any group full of Indian football enthusiasts. It's been 10 years for me too in this forum, and i am proud of that.

Sanjeev Biswas

Wow!! 10 years..infact I had no idea it was 10 years and I checked my profile to see when I joined and well to my surprise I too joined 10 years back Never would I have thought I would stick to a forum for so long..IFN is seriously a treasure trove for anyone with minimum to the highest level of interest in football..I hope IFN grows even bigger in the coming years and hope the same way football grows too..

ashindia

I remember joining from Orkut to IFN. Huge credits to @namewtheld and @rudra for their efforts to create this platform that has in many ways influenced Indian football. Back then when internet was minimal(no fancy power pages or Twitter accounts) IFN was one of those places to get updates for football fans like us.

Once again congratulations to all IFN family.

trojan

I seldom post but regularly visit the forum to get football updates. Was member of the Orkut group and switched here when IFN started. I have been on a number of sports forums but stopped visiting those long back. IFN is the only sport forum I still visit on a regular basis. 

Congrats to @namewtheld sir n @rudra for creating this wonderful interacting platform for football lovers and enthusiasts.

Maddie

Wonderful. We were part of IFF in Orkut in 2007. So many people who we shared thoughts are at good place in indian football currently.  Happy to share and learn so many things about indian football and India. 

souravindia

Wow! Kudos to all members. I also joined here from Orkut, but do not remember if i heard it there. IFN has been part of my daily life all these years, though i post little i i  through all your posts and comments

deepak dedha

I remember my footballing days back from 10 years when I used to play school football. At that time I league was in its initial years, Ranti Martin used to rule the league and Dempo was my favorite club. I used to watch I league matches but I had no one to talk to about it. Everyone around me was obsessed with European football but in all honestly I always liked I league above all and it was around the same time that I found this heaven for Indian football lovers. I started visiting forum regularly from thereon, initially I was shy to start a discussion or being a part of it but now you guys are like family and I'm comfortable to discuss anything.

Congratulations IFNians for completion of 10 years of IFN.

goalkeepar

It has been 7 years for me, time passed so fast, I was not new to forums as I was part of IWPO which shut downed, I found IFN through Google while searching about I league foregin player Transfer's. I am greatful for IFN for giving me a chance to meet so many people from indian football, met people like @Ashlesh and @Domnic @hadfadkar who in turn became my real life friends all thanks to IFN.

munna219777

10 Glorious years and many many more to come !!!

Been here since the start.

IFN is a family for football lovers.

It has been a great journey as a football fan and to interact with so many incredible and knowledgeable friends.

Nothing beats the feeling to be at IFN when India NT is playing.