Indian national football players such as IM Vijayan, Muhammad Rafi, Anas Edathodika and Sahal Abdul Samad shared their videos asking for donations, even though it costs nearly one lakh rupee per person to take charter flights. In April, FIFA announced immediate financial support of $150 million for the 211 member countries. It is impossible to predict how much of the crowd will seep into Indian football. In addition, local or amateur football still thrives outside the hands of FIFA or professional football. But from the high hills of northeastern India to the shores of Malabar, football is best lived and loved. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic will also put seven-a-side football in trouble for the foreseeable future. Selection methods changed as new visa regulations imposed travel restrictions on players. Teams, once dominated by Nigerian footballers, are being taken over by Liberians and Ivorians, where visa validation and related processes have been relatively easier. Nowadays, the selection is mainly based on the information of current players and videos that are watched on YouTube.

Although it takes a few weeks for a foreign player to get used to the very physical and slightly different positional style and structure of this format, a good player can hold a wallet when he returns home. As the novel coronavirus continued to spread, the world returned home. Mandatory quarantines and lockdowns have resulted in the temporary or permanent suspension of various football leagues around the world. Meanwhile, Messi`s training sessions for little Mateo, Fabregas` „Fuck you too“ echoing through the neighborhood, Peter Cech`s „goalkeeper challenge“ dribbling balls into his hands, Memphis Depay`s „dragging with the little lion“, Jesse Lingard`s crossbar challenge in his garden, have all gone viral on social media. But for the little leagues, their teams and players seem to tell different stories. It is obvious that local and under-ranked football cultures around the world will be negatively affected if Europe`s leading clubs have their share in the crisis. Annan Nagaraj was a merchant from Madurai who sold aluminum containers near Muthalakkulam Maidanam. He breathed the football air for several decades, founded a football team called Bluemax Madras and played football tournaments in different parts of Tamil Nadu with the help of Kozhikode players and managers. Seven`s football is the soul of Malabar`s football heritage. As soon as the monsoon is over and the fields are dry, fans are ready for the festive nights of another rugby sevens season. The cities from Thrissur to Kasaragod swing their night to day, in the light of the spotlight.

From Olympian Rahman to IM Vijayan, Muhammad Rafi to Anas Edathodika, Malabar`s famous boots have sprinted through the rough and tuff fields of rugby sevens. Each new season begins with the echo of sound on your streets, in the roof-mounted speaker of slow jeeps, and most recently with the audio clips that are transmitted from group to group via social media. These audio clips, featuring teams and their players with music in the background, draw fans into temporary galleries built from palm forests. Cultural figures such as Ezhuthachan and Moyin Kutty Vaidyar, eulogies of the Malabar rebellion and its martyrs, the lyrics of Mappila songs, fear of dense forests and African elephants, the heat of the Sahara and the lions of Liberia are some of the metaphors used in these audio messages. As it says in these audios: „The black hunter, the sixth king, six feet, the real man! The Liberian Lion Adebayor“, „The thirsty black panther, king of all kings with the sword on his legs, the Kingsley of Ghana“ „Countries have fought ethnic conflicts and wars, with the same blood and power, Liberia Francis and Junior Francis“ etc. These are the players the spectators want to see on the pitch. Africans dominate the mud and the minds of football fans. The lockdown and the longer than expected travel ban are forcing these African footballers into more miserable conditions.

The lives of nearly 200 African players, in the local „seven languages“, black panthers, African elephants or Liberian lions, or people hiding swords in their boots, are now suspended under the sword of uncertainty. Home is everything, whether in a game or in life. As Adebayor said: „Africa is our home, let`s go somewhere, we can move around freely.“ Juan Muller, a twenty-three-year-old Ghanaian footballer who played in the rugby sevens league for ORPC Kecheri, had to spend days in the gardens and parking lots of Mumbai airport eating bread until it was found by the president of the Mumbai District Football Federation, Aditya Thackeray. Mueller was in a hurry to return home when he heard the news of an impending ban on foreign travel. The Prime Minister`s declaration of the all-India lockdown on March 25 gave the final whistle for the 2019-2020 season to seven teams in Kerala. Most major tournaments have been cancelled. Thrissur District has been able to host only one of its ten tournaments and Malappuram has had only eight out of twenty-four. Kannur and Kasaragod were only able to finish one tournament.

Although Calicut finished three of its four tournaments, including „Koyappa All India Sevens, Koduvally,“ the biggest trophy of all, Wayanad district had to cancel its only tournament in the middle. At that time, when India saw workers returning home from distant states and many fell in their way, African footballers traveled the continents to Malabar to obtain their financial resources; was captured in Kerala. Malabar sevens football is played with slightly different rules than the professional eleven-a-side game and its history dates back to the late 1950s, with the Khader Ali All India Sevens League being one of the oldest. In the early years, managers and football enthusiasts from different parts of northern Kerala were expected to gather at the Muthalakkulam Maidanam stadium in the centre of Kozhikode town. Although most tournaments are held in Malappuram and Thrissur, official promotion, player supply, and simultaneous season planning took place in the heart of Calicut for decades until the founding of the Sevens Football Association (SFA) in 1996. Matches are played either without stands or with temporary wooden stands (called galleries) built around the pitches and are almost always well attended. After all, Kerala is one of those parts of the world where football is a high priority for social priorities. As KT Ahmedkutty, owner of a rugby sevens club, told ESPN when the COVID-19 lockdown shut down Sevens for a while: „Do you know how alcoholics experience withdrawal symptoms when they can`t drink every day? I have them when there is no football. It drives me crazy“ Several footballers from Kerala, including Indian internationals such as I. M. Vijayan[5] and Anas Edathodika, attribute their experience to rugby sevens tournaments to help them improve their football skills and develop their passion for the sport.

[8] [1] Check out this crazy football region of India in „Maitanam: The Story of Football in Kerala“ on FIFA+: t.co/vQHnqyiB3ipic.twitter.com/XizxAoi5hz The seven football managers are not rich, as we see from the outside. Managers stay in the arena because of the passion and love for the game and the fame they can make from it. Seven-a-side tournaments are the only economic resource for many managers. Management has had to be directed in recent months on loans and debts, even for the daily expenses of foreign players, as most tournaments have had to be cancelled.