World Cup 2010: Bangladesh gearing up for football fever
Bangladesh, the most unlikely country to have a flare for football by sitting at a lowly 157th in football's international rankings, has surprised the world with their love for football. The country has been shooting up sparks in the past few weeks as preparations for the World Cup are underway all over the world. The spirits of the Bangladeshi people has truly captivated football fans around the world as their love for the sport is visible in the streets of Dhaka and Chittagong.
The surprising nature of the Bangladeshi football obsession has been the result of the country’s inability to qualify for the World Cup. But the country’s fan base still splits into two sections right from the middle, forming an intense rivalry as half the country opts for Brazil while the other half considers Argentina’s playing abilities superior to all other teams. Their obsession initially developed with Brazil and Argentina in 1982 when television began broadcasting the tournament matches live across the country. People instantly fell in love with Brazil because of their stylish way of playing aggressive football. But in 1986, Maradona's victorious Argentina snatched the younger generation towards their country and this resulted in a split as far as the fan bases were concerned. Since then, whenever the FIFA World Cup kicks off, Bangladesh becomes a nation divided into Brazil's yellow and green versus Argentina's blue and white. The rivalry is now in every family, village and town across the country.
The greatest amount of benefit of this love for football has surprisingly come to the tailors of this South Asian nation. The tailors of this country believe that such intense love for football is great for their businesses. The fans within the country portray their die hard allegiance by indulging in counterfeit team shirts and large, colourful flags draped around their houses, offices and street lamps. Over the last few weeks, tailors have reported as having sold thousands of flags. As the countdown for the FIFA World Cup begins, it has bought about a huge boom in a country which is usually focused on cricket. Tailors have been forced to hire extra workers and are caught up in stitching of flags from sunrise to sunset.
It seems that in Bangladesh, the upturn in businesses for cloth makers is a major relief. Due to the recent global meltdown, exports have been few in number for Bangladesh and the sudden storm of sales has really boosted profits for the local economy.
There are a few Italian, English and German fans and there's the odd Portugal fan as well. However, almost all the flags being sold in Bangladesh are either Brazilian or Argentinean. In Bardi town, northwest of Dhaka, almost all the 10,000 residents appear to be flying either a Brazilian or Argentinean flag, with some of them measuring at more than 30 feet in length. The flags represent a symbol that sends out a message telling the locals about which side does a household belongs to.
The month-long World Cup, which is being held in South Africa from June 11, is expected to draw record television audiences in Bangladesh. Advertisers are hoping half the 150 million population of the country will watch if Brazil and Argentina, who are drawn in separate qualifying groups, clash in the final rounds. Leading companies, such as the Swiss food giant Nestle, have also taken advantage of the football craze by creating special World Cup advertisements, depicting Bangladeshi fans of the two South American nations yelling at each other over who is going to win the tournament.
Neither Brazil nor Argentina are the bookies' favourites this year but this doesn't bother the Bangladeshi fans -- to them, soccer is Brazil and Argentina, and Diego Maradona's presence as a coach adds a new dimension to the decades-old obsession. Sadly though, the local football scene within Bangladesh has not reached the heights that it should have. Locally, football players are shadowed by the Bangladesh cricket team. Members of the national football federation in Bangladesh can only hope that the World Cups popularity can be used to lure in a number of young supporters into the domestic football circuit of Bangladesh.
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