Indian diaspora hosts the fifth annual IFA Shield UK, highest number of teams participate

HBG Director and President, Anirban Mukhopadhyay, who initiated the event in 2018, said, “This is a flagship event for the whole of Bengali diaspora in U.K. as we focus on the health part of our daily life, which has become important post Covid. Actually this event has enthused many of us to take to sporting activities, which otherwise take a back seat normally.”

According to the organisers, the tournament has been recognised by the UK's Football Association as a community development sports event.

Photo credit: IFA Shield UK - Indian Fans Alliance/Facebook

The annual UK tournament, which draws inspiration from the IFA Shield (annual football competition organized by the Indian Football Association) is spiced by reiterating the cultural (albeit friendly) rivalry which exists between ‘bangal’ and ‘ghoti’ – Bengalis with their roots in pre-partition east and west Bengal, respectively

The traditional rivalry between the two popular clubs of Kolkata, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, has been legendary and the UK tournament has been replicating the spirit by fielding teams consisting of fans of the two clubs, respectively.

This year, the other famous Kolkata club, the Mohammedan Sporting Club (MSC), also found itself represented in the UK tournament with a fan team thanks to the initiative of MSC’s football secretary Dipendu Biswas.

Since last year, the High Commission of India in the UK has been taking interest in the tournament; this year deputy Indian High Commissioner Sujit Ghosh led a team of players representing the Indian high commission (IHC).

Not only the men, but the women and kids too vied for the top honours; however, instead of a full match, the women participated in penalty shoot outs.

Mohammedan Sporting fans team emerged the winner in the men's category, Mohun Bagan fans in the women's category and East Bengal fans in the Kids' category.

This year the IHC team included former Indian International Jules Alberto and the youngest councillor of Harrow Council, Mathew Goodwin Freeman in their lineup.

Yesteryear’s Kolkata football legend Chima Okerie, who has been a regular in all the previous editions, was also present to don the jersey for the IHC team.

The winners as well as the runners-up received a replica of the actual IFA Shield along with medals for all the players.

Adding to the fun was a food festival which featured popular Kolkata cuisine, including dishes made with ‘ilish’ (hilsa fish, symbolic of East Bengal) and ‘chingri’ (prawns, symbolic of Mohun Bagan).

This year, the HBG organisers led by their vice president Mahua Bej and the team comprising Rajib Saha, Sourav Paul, Ramita Ghosh and Sudipto Bhowmik had a tough task cut out with having to accommodate the highest number of fan teams.

The popularity of the UK tournament has even crossed the seas and caught the fancy of people in Kolkata and several city-based organisations have come forward as sponsors, the organisers said in a release.

The tournament not only received support from Kolkata-based IIHM Chairman Suborno Bose but also from Pointers Business Forum (PBF; a business network entity of the city’s South Point School) through members Debashis Ghosh in Kolkata, Sanjay Guha in Mumbai and Shoumo Choudhury in Harrow.

This year, the tournament also received support from the educational institute GBS UK.

According to the UK organisers, the Australian and US editions of the Indian Fans Alliance Shield are coming up in September and November this year respectively, both of which started last year.

“Now the diaspora is thinking of launching an annual Bengal – Britain cricket tournament later this year,” said Anirban Mukhopadhyay.