Going Underground

Photo: Enlighten Events

Underground football is one of the most popular sports among teenagers and youth in Dhaka, and it's been around for a decade or so. But underground football from back when it started off doesn't have much in common with the scene today.
University students initiated underground football back in 2005, but it wasn't popular at all back then, and it wasn't nearly as competitive as it is now. Barely anyone knew about the underground football community and only a few students from colleges and universities played in tournaments. It wasn't until 2008 that underground football stopped being a niche sport and entered the mainstream. Now, almost everyone has at least heard of underground football and knows someone who plays it.
“Back when the underground football trend started, good teams and players were rare, and in every tournament we played, the first and second rounds used to be really easy,” says Mustafa Walid Sarwar Birol, an underground football legend. “At most, one or two tournaments were held in a month, but they were of a certain standard. Nowadays, the quality of tournaments concerns me. Organisers should care more about the tournament than the profit.”
“I remember playing one tournament in the morning, another at noon and a third in the afternoon. Sometimes there would be really big tournaments with major sponsors like Mojo, Ford, Clemon,” says Sameen Sakib Islam, one of the top underground football players who played for Elites and DOHS United. “Nowadays, many of the tournaments are substandard with the exception of a few. There are a lot of Under 16 tournaments. The open-to-all tournaments are usually poorly organised and end up getting cancelled.”

Organising a tournament is very difficult nowadays, with costs being hard to cover without sponsors and certain teams not paying full entry fees, causing fights to break out during matches. However, there are certain organisations such as Enlighten Events who host good, large-scale tournaments.

“If you don't get sponsorship funds, it's hard to cover the expenses prior to the tournament, for example buying balls, making medals and trophies and paying field rent in advance,” says Farhan Haque, a player for Slashers. “So what you do is collect advance entry fees for the tournament. Many teams might not show up so it's smart to make it a first-come, first-served basis so that in order to sign up your team you have to pay first. Now getting teams to sign up is fairly simple thanks to Facebook.”
Underground football has evolved greatly over time, and now there are tournaments held in all sorts of places in different forms and with different sets of rules. There's the usual outdoor football with standard rules, then there's street football tournaments, held in places like outdoor basketball and tennis courts, which are usually played five-a-side. There's indoor football which is also played with a small number of players on each side, usually with small posts and no goalkeepers. A new form of playing, called Futsal, has also been introduced. Futsal is played indoors or on concrete courts, usually with five players on each team, with waist high goalposts, and in the game, if the ball goes above waist-height, it's a foul. These improvised rules make the game harder and more interesting.
Now that there are more tournaments, there are more diverse players. People used to make teams with people from school or their neighborhoods, but now, a lot of players play for more than one team, and even randomly assemble teams for a tournament. Good teams and players were hard to find long ago, and the few well known good teams were 7 Nation Army, DOHS United and FC Volta. But with so many good players now, a lot of new teams like Slashers, Bros Incorporated and Elites turned up.
There are also many underground tournaments for girls, with girls' teams such as Beamers, Zero Gravity, FBI and Happy Feet popping up. Girls' tournaments have fewer teams, hence lesser prize money, but the football is getting better, according to Raiyan Rafiq, winner of multiple “Best Forward” medals for Beamers. “It's nice to see how the way girls used to play football has changed. It's no more pulling jerseys or kicking the air, there are many girls who can play smooth flowing football and with a bit more practice we will have more players like them. Hopefully by next year there will better tournaments with more teams. I would personally love to see more outdoor tournaments for girls even if it means getting sun burnt. What is football without the sun, the grass and a few bruises?”      
The fact that underground tournaments are packed with talent, excitement and competition attracts sponsors and even scouts from the national and domestic teams. Though most players play underground football as a hobby and don't expect any career prospects out of it, a few players have been offered spots in clubs like Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Kamal and even the national team. But most players usually end up going to universities and completing their education.
Some say that the underground football scene is dying out, that the hype for it is decreasing and people aren't as excited about it as they were before, though all the players deny this. “Who says the hype is dying out? Underground football is still popular among under-25s, mostly those going to university and younger. We have so many people forming teams with friends, and so many amazing new players emerging, and there are so many tournaments everywhere,” says Zahin Reaz, winner of various 'Best Keeper' awards. “Every school kid with a tiny bit of interest in playing enters underground tournaments around the time they're in class eight. It can't possibly be losing popularity; anyone involved in the game can see that.”
But venues for hosting tournaments have definitely decreased in number. Dhanmondi road 8 field, a regular venue for tournaments, was renovated recently and then closed off to public, and Abahani indoor court prohibited indoor football. Many fields are in horrible condition due to those in charge not taking care of it properly, and they're left that way. But that doesn't mean there aren't proper fields, and people still play in those badly taken care of fields, just because they love playing the game, because that's what it's all about in the end.
Those who play underground football, even though mostly as a hobby, seem to be addicted to it. They love the game more than anything else and they're obsessed with it, they're fascinated and captivated by it, despite its various drawbacks. After all, what could be more fun than getting together with your friends over the weekend to play football and winning medals, trophies and some money while you're at it?