History of Bangalore Football - (From KSFA Facebook page)
Bangalore is no stranger to football. The city always had some wonderful private football clubs in the 1940s and 1950s such as Bangalore Blues, Bangalore Sporting, Bangalore Muslims, and the Mysore Rovers, who played quality stuff. And these clubs are still playing in the BDFA (Bangalore District Football Association) leagues. Bangalore's Cantonment area has seen players making history for the country. The Austin Town Football Ground in Bangalore gave India one its great goalkeepers, P.K. Nandan who coached youngsters here and organized tournaments. The first Olympians for the country came from Austin Town. Greats like Raman, Kannaiah, Shanmugham, and Anthony, who played on the Austin Town ground, were part of the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. Of the nine Olympians, seven made it in 1948 and the others in 1952. Two - Varadarajan and Vajravelu - were from the City area of Okalipalya, while the rest were mostly from the Cantonment. The British brought Italian prisoners in the early '40s to Bangalore. They were put up at the Garrison Grounds, today's Parade Grounds-Cubbon Road area. While serving their term, the Italians would play football. Locals who worked for the British in their homes would join or play against the prisoners in friendly contests. The locals would always play barefoot, the Italians in boots. And the locals were expected to win, they would and some even played barefoot later in the 1948 & 1952 Olympics. Football was popular both in the Cantonment and City areas then, though much of it was played on the Sullivan and Garrison grounds in the Cantonment. In the City, football was and is popular around YMCA grounds, and Cubbonpet. There are football tournaments played every day in Bangalore and when teams like HAL, BEML, ITI, BHEL etc play, a massive crowd of atleast 10000 come to watch their stars play in Bangalore Football Stadium.
Nice to know about Italian connection. Bangalore has a huge Christian and Muslim population, so there are people who play games other then Cricket. While Coorgis go for Hockey, Muslims and Christian population gave talented Football players.
Match 4 : CIL 1-1 South United. SU won on the penalties 5-4 and setup clash agianst Bengaluru FC for 2moro's semi-final. First semi-final will happen today at 03:30 PM Students Union Vs ASC.
I think, instead of a Bangalore league, a state league would have bring out some rivalries. That would revitalize the football scenario. It would be low cost as well (only some travel bill would go up). So not difficult to catch some sponsors, especially some IT biggies. Of course, no evening matches.
Mr AR Khaleel will not work towards it. Best to work as Malayisa model where district FA will own the club.
Ask State FA to have proper state based on district head quarters, auction teams if no takers as District FA to form a team and sell in future if any investor want or form a club with FA/Public/Private model. I guess we can do this proper state leagues.
Currently only smaller states has league in india. Given F***ing state of affiars in AIFF i cant see any growth on state or national league or NT for that matter.
same for west bengal. a huge potential outside kolkata. at kalyani, durgapur, siliguri all having good stadiums and facilities. but we have only calcutta football league. no west bengal premier division league. :-/
our state leagues format should follow goa. they are ( gfa) running a good league with an ideal structure. that will also help to spread the footballing base. there are many players in peripheral districts who just can't afford to come to kolkata in regular basis for ttraining. there are lots of talent untouched. we should be aiming gor those.
Wrong thread to discuss this but it should be more like what @maddie suggested. IFA should incubate (form the club, make the admin struc, provide some seed money -- of course from the league sponsorship money) and hawk for sale the clubs.
A Bengal State League can well comprise of the big two +MSC + 5 district town teams -- the towns being the towns of the PLS teams. Getting telecast and sponsorship will not at all be a problem.
Comments
Bangalore is no stranger to football. The city always had some wonderful private football clubs in the 1940s and 1950s such as Bangalore Blues, Bangalore Sporting, Bangalore Muslims, and the Mysore Rovers, who played quality stuff. And these clubs are still playing in the BDFA (Bangalore District Football Association) leagues. Bangalore's Cantonment area has seen players making history for the country. The Austin Town Football Ground in Bangalore gave India one its great goalkeepers, P.K. Nandan who coached youngsters here and organized tournaments.
The first Olympians for the country came from Austin Town. Greats like Raman, Kannaiah, Shanmugham, and Anthony, who played on the Austin Town ground, were part of the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. Of the nine Olympians, seven made it in 1948 and the others in 1952. Two - Varadarajan and Vajravelu - were from the City area of Okalipalya, while the rest were mostly from the Cantonment.
The British brought Italian prisoners in the early '40s to Bangalore. They were put up at the Garrison Grounds, today's Parade Grounds-Cubbon Road area. While serving their term, the Italians would play football. Locals who worked for the British in their homes would join or play against the prisoners in friendly contests. The locals would always play barefoot, the Italians in boots. And the locals were expected to win, they would and some even played barefoot later in the 1948 & 1952 Olympics.
Football was popular both in the Cantonment and City areas then, though much of it was played on the Sullivan and Garrison grounds in the Cantonment. In the City, football was and is popular around YMCA grounds, and Cubbonpet. There are football tournaments played every day in Bangalore and when teams like HAL, BEML, ITI, BHEL etc play, a massive crowd of atleast 10000 come to watch their stars play in Bangalore Football Stadium.
Nice to know about Italian connection. Bangalore has a huge Christian and Muslim population, so there are people who play games other then Cricket. While Coorgis go for Hockey, Muslims and Christian population gave talented Football players.
:-/