Sevens Football: Weaved into Kerala’s sports community
Sevens Football, also known as Kerala Sevens or simply Sevens, is the beating heart behind the Indian coastal state’s love for the sport.
Football
In the Indian state of Kerala, football is a way of life and Sevens Football is at the very heart of the region’s unwavering love for the sport.
The scaled-down version of the beautiful game, even though played at local and community levels in the coastal state, came to FIFA’s attention recently and the world body featured Sevens Football, also called Kerala Sevens or just Sevens, in one of its documentaries titled Maitanam.
What is Sevens Football
To put it simply, Sevens Football is seven-a-side football. While there are no fixed demarcations of rules between regular footbal, Sevens Football is played on smaller local playgrounds, often just dirt pitches in Kerala.
The matches are shorter, mostly with halves of 15 or 20 minutes, and the refereeing is generous, often ignoring crunching tackles for the sheer delight of intensity. Crowded pitches also make dribbling and the technical ability to create space out of nothing premium skill sets in Sevens Football.
In short, Sevens Football is intense, fun and every match is played at a breakneck speed, making for an entertaining spectacle.
These very traits have made Sevens a mode of mass entertainment in Kerala, with entire communities, including families, turning up to support their local teams. Mostly, matches are played every day but in the evenings to allow fans to come to the ground after their daily work.
When is Sevens Football played
Sevens Football is played every year from November to May. The period from June to October, which sees heavy monsoons in the state, serves as the off-season.
All around the state, especially in the northern and central parts, Sevens Football tournaments, of varying sizes, are organised. The district of Malappuram is considered the hub of Sevens Football in Kerala.
Sevens Football - a cultural staple in Kerala
According to estimates by ESPN, ‘around 600 tournaments are conducted by various bodies and club associations’. These range from tournaments between local clubs to big-money tourneys for clubs from all around the state.
It’s common for clubs to sign semi-professional foreign players, mostly from West Africa, for big tourneys. The overseas recruits get paid anywhere in the range of 30 to 80 US dollars per match and can play for multiple teams in a tournament.
Most of the organised tournaments, around 50 of them, are overseen by the Sevens Football Association (SFA).
Regardless of the size of the tournament, fans spill in in numbers to attend Sevens matches. For some of the big tournaments, makeshift wooden stands are erected, which are filled to the brim, creating a highly-charged atmosphere.
The energy around Sevens matches is often palpable due to the vociferous crowd in close proximity to the pitch and the passion invariably spills onto the field.
Sevens Football in Kerala is more than just a sport, it’s interwoven in the state’s cultural fabric and ethos. Entire communities get involved, not just in the matches but also in the team building. Teams have a big local representation and players often live within the communities they represent, making it a very personal affair.
Unlike the professional 11-a-side game of modern times, it’s not hard to imagine your local shopkeeper scoring the winning goal in a Sevens match or the fisherman from the next street over diving low to make a tournament-winning penalty save.
Sevens Football has seeped into the culture, community and livelihood of Keralites to such an extent that it was even the central plot for a multi-award-winning Malayalam film titled Sudani from Nigeria.
A hotbed for raw talent
Indian state and national federations often discourage players from playing Sevens Football due to high risk of injuries. However, the Sevens Football grounds in every nook and corner of Kerala has produced some terrific players for the Indian national team.
Indian football legend IM Vijayan, in fact, credits Sevens Football for nurturing his love for the game.
“Sevens football has played a significant role in making me the international player I became. I began playing in sevens tournaments when I was a teenager, and never stopped,” IM Vijayan told The Hindu.
Players like Anas Edathodika, Ashique Kuruniyan and Sahal Abdul Samad also earned their recognition playing Sevens Football before stepping up to the traditional fold.
Sevens also helped Kerala football sustain through difficult times from early 2000 to 2014. The period saw several traditional clubs like Viva Kerala and FC Kochin shut down due to lack of funds.
Before a revival with the advent of Indian Super League club Kerala Blasters and I-League team Gokulam Kerala, it was Sevens football which helped many local footballers earn a living and continue to play in front of packed crowds.