It goes without saying that for any sport to grow, the support of fans is paramount. And the two-time champion Chennaiyin FC (CFC) of the Indian Super League has been arguably pretty quick to absorb the truism. The Associate sponsor of CFC, Nippon Paint, on Wednesday, conducted a ‘Meet n Greet’ with few players, which included Dhanpal Ganesh, Francis Fernandes, Bedashwor Singh and Mohammed Rafi. Mahesh S. Anand, President of Nippon Paint India Pvt. Limited (Decorative Division) garlanded the four players.
A. G. Dinesh Raj of Super Machans, a fan club of CFC, has been cheering for the team since January 2015. According to him, this year CFC’s involvement with its fans was very good as compared to the previous editions. “This time, CFC ensured we didn’t have any hurdles when we took banners to the stadiums (home & away). CFC organised the travel by bus to Bengaluru & back for the final against Bengaluru FC. We enjoyed every bit of it in the final,” he said. When local hero Dhanpal Ganesh was introduced to the gathering, the Super Machans cheered, saying: “He is one of our own.”
When one of the fans asked about the journey to success, Francis Fernandes said he was not sure whether he would be picked by any team at the time of the draft as he had just gone through a surgery. “I underwent an ankle operation on July 19 and was on the draft on July 23. Even the Doctors had said it will take three months for me to be fit. [But] I was picked by CFC as they believed in me. I am really happy,” he said. Ganesh thanked the fans and media and said that they were the main reasons for CFC’s success.
Later, select fans and winners of Nippon Paint’s Digital Contest were handed signed jerseys by the players.
