A crowd of around 75 people swarm into Kites Cafe in Hope College, most of them in red shirts. For the next 90 minutes the café reverberates with roars of excitement and loud chanting. “Glory glory Man United, glory glory Man United…, As the reds go marching on on on!” they bellow. The Manchester United Fan Club of Coimbatore is all set to cheer their team as it plays against Manchester City in the English Premier League.
It all began with Rahul Kamath and Ashwin Sundar who studied in Manchester in England and are big fans. When they came back to Coimbatore, they missed watching the match with a big crowd of fans in a sports pub atmosphere. Another Manchester United fan Gowtham Prasath decided to form a fan club in Coimbatore and on the fifth of October last year, five of them got together and watched a match against Everton.
Today, there are a hundred fans. “Honestly, we didn’t expect so many people to join from a city like Coimbatore. Even clubs from metro cities have only 120 to 130 members”, says Rahul. The fans spread the word about the club by word of mouth and through their Facebook page which has nearly 500 followers. “Now all that is missing from Manchester is the beer” he laughs.
The Manchester United Fan Club of Coimbatore has screened over 15 matches at various locations. Restaurants and cafes reach out to them because it is good business and publicity. But gradually they began to outgrow the venues. “Now we fit into Kites, but we will soon outgrow this too,” says Gowtham. There is a strict dress code. Everyone has to wear either Manchester United t-shirts or their home colour, red! “But I always wear my white Manchester Tee and scarf. We are very superstitious. We even sit in the exact order as we sat in for the winning matches” confesses Gowtham. V.K.Shiva, Public Relations in-charge of the club just joined them as a friend and not as a fan. But he eventually turned into a big fan of Man United. “I was inspired by the spirit of these guys,” he says
The fans are made up of college and school students, businessmen and professionals. But they cheer their team as one. Varsha. S is a first year architecture student who is an ardent fan too. “I got to know about the club from Keshav Bharadwaj, he invited me and I have had the best time here, ”she says. She urges other women fans to join them. There are ten of them already. They don’t just watch matches but also play. “Around 30 of us gather at Decathelon or Codissia to play in the weekends. We also form teams and enter open tournaments happening in the city” says Keshav who is in the organising committee of the club. They extend their interest to charity as well. “We all pay a nominal entry fee to the club in order to handle the food and venue expenses. An extra 20 rupees is collected with the fee and donated to charity. Last time we gave it to Make a Difference’s Dream Camp project for children” says Savio Sharand Roy. Even as we speak, Kites Café erupts in a cacophony of screams and cheers. Manchester United wins the match, 4-2.
