Pleased with their team's gritty performance on December 4 against Jamshedpur FC in Kochi, 'Manjappada (Yellow Army)'—the fans group of the Kerala Blasters—ended their boycott of the matches and requested the fans to 'fill the stadium' on Dec 7 for their home match against Pune City FC.
Manjappada took to Facebook to appreciate the team's performance in spite of the match ending in yet another draw. In fact, this is Kerala Blasters's worst winless streak in the ISL history—nine matches.
A boycott was something unheard of in Indian football, and possibly international football. More so, with the Kerala Blasters and Manjappada. The '12th man' of the Kerala outfit had been with the team through thick and thin in the past seasons of the Indian Super League.
So, after the team's ninth match ended in a 0-0 stalemate, they issued a clarion call to boycott the home match against Jamshedpur FC on December 4. The fans paid heed to the call. The Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium in Kochi, which sees anywhere between 20,000 and 30,000 spectators on match days, saw only 8,451 turn up. In place of the usual bright banners that pledged Manjappada’s support to the club, there were two that read, ‘Supporters, Not Customers’ and ‘We Deserve Better’.
It turned out to be an embarrassment for the team and organisers as German legend Lothar Matthaus was in the stadium to watch the match. The Germany and FC Bayern Munich legend is in India as part of the Bundesliga Legends Tour. Mathhaus urged the fans not to boycott the matches. “I can also hold a protest against my wife for not cooking well enough. You have to support your team in good times and bad times. I saw the Kochi team last night, they didn't have a good result... but they didn't give up and kept trying till the end... the coach, the players, they gave their all,” he was quoted as saying at a press meet in Mumbai.
Manjappada had criticised the team management and head coach David James for lack of clear game strategy and underutilising the players at hand.
Luck, too, seemed to have deserted the Kerala Blasters, as they were at the receiving end of some questionable refereeing decisions, including yesterday's match against Jamshedpur FC. But the Kerala team has lost seven points after losing or drawing matches from winning positions.
With nine points from 10 games, Kerala Blasters are seventh on the 10-team points table.