How Bengaluru FC tuned out the surreal silence in the stadium to win their game

The Bengaluru FC official could only shrug his shoulders at the suggestion of playing behind closed doors. “The biggest game of our history and then this happens,” the official said in a tone which implied that the announcement was not too well received.

So why was this such a big deal for the club? In its three-year history, they had already asserted their superiority in the I-League, winning it twice. Now, it was looking to make its mark on the continental stage, against the best opponents that Asia had to offer.

The club had made it as far as the round of 16 the first time that they participated in the AFC Cup in 2015, losing by a score of 2-0 to a far superior South China side. This time, they had already crossed that hurdle, beating Kitchee FC of Hong Kong 3-2 in a tense encounter.

The Blues were eyeing bigger fish this time, coming up against an in-form Tampines Rovers of Singapore. For them to stand any chance in the two-legged tie, they absolutely had to make their home match, the first of the tie, count.

But we're jumping ahead...

To begin at the beginning

The Cauvery water row didn’t just put the city of Bengaluru on edge; it did significantly more damage, dampening the hustle and bustle of the place that is considered India’s IT capital.

One of the biggest events in the city which was on the verge of cancellation or re-location was Bengaluru FC’s huge AFC Cup quarter-final clash against Tampines Rovers. The visiting team came to town but were unable to practise over security concerns. All they could manage was a light warm-up in the car park of their hotel.

The Asian Football Confederation and the Bengaluru Police eventually came to a compromise. The match would take place in the city, in daylight and not in the evening, but behind closed doors. No spectators. Once again, politics had trumped over sports.

Missing: West Block Blues

Some hardcore purists of the Beautiful Game might tell you that the crowd has nothing to do with the outcome of a football match. They are partially right of course – it really is up to the 22 men in the middle, along with their managers.

But as anyone who has been to the Sree Kanteerava football stadium on a Bengaluru FC match-day will tell you, not for nothing are the passionate supporters of the Steel Men designated the team’s 12th Man.

The West Block Blues – as the BFC supporters refer to themselves – are named after the stadium’s largest stand and are a vociferous lot, not to be messed with. Their passion for the game and the club burn as brightly as that of any football fan anywhere in the world.

Jindal Steel Works, the owners of Bengaluru FC have done something remarkable with their fan engagement campaigns – sparking the love of the game in the a long considered dead when it came to building a following for local football. Despite being home to former iconic clubs, such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Indian Telephone Industries, Bengaluru has never matched Kolkata, for instance, it its intensity when it came to football.

It is this phenomenal fan following and not the three trophies the club has won in its brief history that should be considered its greatest achievement. Weaning the youthful Bengaluru crowd away from cricket – where local heroes Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble are legends, and the IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore have everyone's heart – and from the European leagues to dote on a local football team is a huge accomplishment.

Imagine not having this support in the stands. Sadly for Bengaluru FC, the club did not have to imagine. The eventuality materialised.

Surreal experience

Now, India is no stranger to poor turnouts at non-cricket sporting events, but fortunately, Bengaluru FC matches are not one of those. These matches are eagerly anticipated and on a match-day, one can find persons of all shapes and sizes, IT professionals and others, congregate to form one giant blue mass and stream into the stadium through each of its ten gates.

Without the giant banners unfurled and displaying the club crest featuring the Gandaberunda – a mythical two headed bird possessing magical might and, not incidentally, the coat of arms for the state of Karnataka, it seemed like a surreal experience. That's not just for the players accustomed to raucous cheering, but also for the handful of club officials and media people present.

There were no fans this time to verbally assault the opposition with their cheering, spook the visiting team with their decibel levels, and turn the stadium into one giant cauldron. Instead, the atmosphere was sterile, unthinkable for a football match of this magnitude.

If anything, the experience seemed to further prove that the fans are the lifeblood and the oxygen of the club, its very soul. Without them, it felt as though the stadium had been given one giant Dementor’s Kiss.

The vibrancy, the electricity in the air, the hyper-charged fanatics rocking the perimeter of the pitch were all absent as there was nobody to cheer every high press that Sunil Chhetri made or the goal that CK Vineeth scored.

The silence was deafening – and Bengaluru FC had to drown it out. They did so by winning by a small margin of one goal to none, but the players would have missed the cries of "Go, Blues" even as they may have been surprised by being able to communicate with one another audibly and having little or no distractions in the background.

A few polite claps followed Vineeth’s goal on an overcast evening and the full-time whistle, but lest we forget, this was football – the greatest spectator sport in the world, not the Wimbledon final taking place in the Queen’s presence at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet club.

Soon the match was over and the dust settled on a match which coach Albert Roca said, was played under "strange conditions". For Roca and the rest of the foreign contingent at BFC, from countries which see crowds of 40,000 and above for the big game, the distance must have been like light years, especially when you consider that the Kanteerava’s maximum capacity is just about 24,000 with the audience in full strength.

Roca knows a thing or two about the galvanising effect of fans on the home team, and he will hope that the West Block Blues and BFC can set up this season’s first date in the semi-final. Until then, the empty stands will reflect on what has been a trying week not just for the club, but also for their loyal fans.