This is an academic project for the National Institute of Design
Author: Tarique Ahamed Photography Design, 2017 Batch National Institute of Design Gandhinagar, Gujarat- 382007
Guide: Amarnath Praful, Rishi Singhal Copyright © 2020 Tarique Ahamed All rights reserved
The carefree days of my childhood were spent with the madness of playing football barefoot on beaches and paddy fields. I share this invisible imprint with some of the people from my land, and the beauty of this memory lies in that. Most of the men find this tinge in each other as it is an integral part of the cultural and personal histories of Malabar. The realisation that photography can speak about this connection dawned on me after coming across the archival collection of Sevens. The first person I came across was Vinayan, Team manager of Black and White Kozhikode. He mentioned about the photographic collections that have been preserved by Super Studio Malappuram and Town Sports Club Kannur and directed me towards them. The possibility of a football club functioning as a studio excited and amazed me. Several reasons sparked my curiosity to work on this, among which this connection held the utmost significance. The archive laid bare the journey of Sevens which came with an assuring sense of interest. This particular collection of photographs were made in three decades between 1970 and 2000 in the region of Malabar.
Photographs are part of the album collections of two football clubs. As they never differentiated the images based on ownership it is a collective collection in a true sense which strikes the concept of artistic authority. This book is an attempt to understand how the cult of Sevens football survived and thrived through a period of more than half a century, specifically through the available photographs and visual media in the context of the Malabar region.
The pages that follow are dedicated to the people who once upon a time, decided to dedicate their lives to the romance called football.
Time and again the roots of football have been put into question with how many countries continue to contest the origins of this sport. Like photography, football too got infused into the Indian setting during the British Raj. Initially played among the army teams this was slowly embraced by the natives who got interested in the game. In India, the first football game was organized between ‘Calcutta Club of Civilians’ and the ‘Gentlemen of Barrackpore’, in 1854. The first football club of India, named ‘Calcutta FC’, was founded in 1872. Dalhousie Club, Traders Club, and Naval Volunteers Club were also established in the following years. A few football clubs were consequently formed by 1877-88 through the labour of a football enthusiast named Nagendra Prasad Sarbhadhikary, he is said to be the moral backbone behind flourishing football among Indians. Some clubs patronised by Prasad promptly challenged the British teams. In 1893 the first Indian football federation called IFA was founded. Like many other committees and associations under British rule, the football federation did not have a single Indian on its board. The major event that showed a rise in Indian Football was in 1911 when Mohun Bagan AC defeated East Yorkshire Regiment (2–1) in the IFA Shield finals. This was the first time an Indian team won a major national tournament.
The British army took the game across the country by forming regimental teams in Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and other cities. R B Fergusson Football club was established on February 20, 1899, in Thrissur. This was the oldest football club in the southern part of India and played a huge role in promoting football in Kerala during the early 1900s. By this time the love for football among the natives was profound, in the 1940s Aurora Football Club was formed in Thrissur which went on to become the second oldest football club in Southern India. The Kerala football association was promptly formed in 1948. The region has never overlooked an opportunity to traditionally host football tournaments. The Sait Nagjee trophy (Kozhikode), Chakola Gold trophy (Thrissur), Mammen Mappillai trophy (Kottayam), Nehru trophy (Kollam), and G. V Raja trophy (Thiruvananthapuram) were all-India tournaments organised in the state. Another specialty of the region is that it has always produced exceptional footballing talents and has been a constant presence in the national footballing space. It isn’t unreal to think of how Kerala gave so many legends like T. Abdul Rahman, Xavier Pius, V. P Sathyan, C. V Pappachan, Sharaf Ali, I. M Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri, and others to the national football.
Kick Off Malabar was a district that was a part of Madras presidency of British India. The present-day Malabar consists of districts such as Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Wayanad and Palakkad. Various Institutions were established in various parts of the country during British rule. One such organization was the Malabar Special Police (MSP), which was temporarily drafted into a special force to deal with periodic outbreaks for freedom by native Muslims of the Malabar region and was later made permanent. Having been headquartered in Malappuram, the MSP was initially known as the Malappuram Special Police. The MSP had various police camps in the region, the British officers used to play football as a leisure time activity in the police camps and natives played the role of spectators for the game, this is how they got introduced to the game. The natives took to the game, the lack of availability of huge football grounds forced them to the harvested rice fields, wherein lies the origins of Sevens football.
Sevens football is an appropriated form of the football game known in the general sense, the name comes from the number of players included in the team for the game. Both teams play with seven players on their side on a smaller football field than the usual eleven. What makes Sevens football different, isn’t just about the numbers and size of the field. More than an arena of entertainment or creating a spectacle, Sevens had vivid roles in social relations which played an extraordinary and inevitable social, cultural, and economic function in village life which is very rarely studied. It played a vital role in the collective social life as an institution of socialization, civil society groups and forming friends circle.
In 1983, a few active Sevens clubs and football-loving people got together to form Kerala Sevens Association (KSA), the major ideological differences and clashes with the state associations lead to this event. The impact of any kind of sport establishes a form of harmony among the people, despite the lack of heavy investment, clubs relied on the peoples feeling associated with the game, social relations in the villages, a handful of return through tickets, some small amount put in by local businessmen and other one-off donations. Creating a different form with resources available in hand, they formed their own set of rules and mannerisms. Even with a lack of high investment and battling with everyday survival, some chose to not give up on this new spirit that they had.
Eduardo Galeano in his book, Football in Sun and Shadows argues that “The History of football is a sad voyage from beauty to duty. The play has become a spectacle, with few protagonists and many spectators, football for watching. And that spectacle has become one of the most profitable businesses in the world, organized not for play but rather to impede it”. In times when the game has become an industry and the essence of passion and joy got torn out by fame and money, a small section of people continue to resist and denounce the functioning and rules of all major institutionalized football associations including the All India Football Federation, FIFA. For the same reason, there are punishments received by the professional players if they indulge in this madness of Sevens. However much the institutionalized football, the rich and powerful try to control it, this section resists it. Conformity never has been their playing style.
Town Sports Club is a football club based in Valapattanam, Kannur, Kerala. The club came in motion in the 1970’s after the downfall of another football club named Cosmopolitan club (1960-1970) from the same region. This downfall took place majorly due to economic instability among other reasons. The cosmopolitan club was also a part of the pioneers of “gate collection” football tournaments in North Kerala.
Eventually, as the ousting of these legends took place, a group of native young football enthusiasts came together to initiate the idea of a football club in a new light. With their continuous spark and enthusiasm and after winning most of the games in the neighboring regions, they decided to officially bring the club into motion in 1973. Town Sports Club for the past five decades has been a major part of the dynamic changes in the social landscape of a small village like Valapattanam. They began with the social and functional identity of a football club and consequently started playing roles in various other cultural, social, and political activities like free medical camps, free football camps, etc. The club played a major role in changing the face of Kannur in football history, be it the creation of a football stadium in Valapattanam or bringing out talented football players through their free camps and training. Later, played a major role in forming Kerala Sevens Association(KSA) in 1983. Their close ties with local studios made it possible to document a history that would’ve otherwise been lost.
Super Studio was initiated by a group of high school kids of Malapurram coming from the villages of Kottapdi and Kunnummal. Formed primarily in the late ’70s by Micro Azeez, Nananth Kareem and Ashraf Baava popularly known as Super Ashraf. Ashraf was able to initiate Super Studio after receiving some money from the Malappuram municipality under an unemployment scheme. Apart from football, he was also interested in the process of photography from an early stage. The setup of the studio was just for the purpose of sustenance and playing football. Although the studio space was used for commercial purposes, at the same time, it was also used for football club meetings. Among the forerunners of the club were Hameed Thangal, Saleem Varangod,
Goalkeeper Sidheek, Majeed, Ramesh and Noushad. Masthan Beeran Kutty was the manager. The high school kids who never gave up on football eventually turned into legendary Sevens players.
Super studio came into the Sevens scene at a very crucial moment. They became one of the major teams and later associated themselves with the formation of the Kerala Sevens Association (KSA) in 1983. Their participation and organization of major tournaments in and around North Kerala slowly spread to other parts of the country. Ashraf Baava being a photography enthusiast kept photographing their journey as footballers through the course of time and contributed to a larger part of this collection. Super Studio still functions both as a photographic studio and a football team. Ashraf Baava plays the role of the manager of the club now.
‘Son, football is my religion, Sevens is its Antichrist’, remarked Father Geevarghese, a fictional creation of N.S Madhavan. Sevens have long established themselves with the storms of time. They stood tall with their beliefs and kept playing like it’s their only source of survival. Most of the players sustain their families through this passion. The football games hosted by Sevens helped villages function too. The game scenario globally turned towards a capitalist ethic where players started turning into sources of investment and returns. A sense of strong emotion that has always been associated with football in Kerala was nourished through the functioning of Sevens. With their eccentricities, they always reclaimed and proved to be an antithesis to the capitalistic shift of this game in a larger setting. They flaunt their pastoral roots by breaking the concept of treating football as yet another business investment. The relationship between players is not limited to the professional work ethic, they are rather closely linked to each other, the team treats all of them as their own. They also exceed their reach by lending out support to the local fandom and village community. Football has always been a part of the social and cultural fabric of Kerala. The madness of Malabar for this game is unbound. Even for the people who do not indulge in playing football, it is somehow still a part of their life. Young children and adults mostly end up bonding over football. They grow up playing barefoot together in paddy fields and beaches. During World Cup fifa matches one can easily come across painted flags and banners of Argentina and Brazil on the
roadside shops. This time is like a festival for them to find ways to connect with cultures from across the globe. The boundaries of nations and states melt with this collective fanaticism. This has been an integral part of strengthening the sports scene. Among other village games, Sevens continued to be a part of the surviving sports. The year 2012 when Maradona came to Kerala is remembered as a cherished memory among the Malayalee fans. Thousands of people travelled from all over Kerala to catch a glimpse of him. The state even went on to declare a two-day mourning when he passed away in 2020. In addition to being considered the god of football, Maradona1 and his fandom in Kerala can also be because of his political beliefs and ties with leaders like Castro and Chavez which resonates well with the idea of comradeship in a red Kerala. Although love for the sport has cemented itself here, the lack of financial resources continues to hamper many young dreams. Football in India often gets blurred when faced with the charms of sports like cricket and hockey but Kerala and few other states have kept this passion alive. The limited influx of finances and exposure led to difficulties in functioning for the Sevens. Later advent of migration and globalisation brought about a change for the better and helped them to expand further. Gulf emigration led to an inflow of finances from the Malabar Malayalee community. Sevens survived through thick and thin with an increased love existing for them among the community. Slowly with this, the floodlights too came to the scene by late ’80s, this led to an extension of playing time. Now people could enjoy the game after dusk.
1. Diego Armando Maradona, Argentine football player who is generally regarded as the top footballer of the 1980s and one of the greatest of all time in footballing history.
We see in these images men standing, their skins minutely touching each other, weaving a togetherness and forming a whole. There are little boys wandering about and excited groups of men waiting for their turns to buy the tickets to book their slots and attend the game. Some coins are placed in the corner of what seems like a wooden plank used for exchanging the tickets. The preparation from available natural resources created a space for football to function in the villages of Malabar. The ticket booths and football grounds in the images are both symbolic and historical; the counters and boundaries are built from dry coconut leaves. As opposed to the idea of elite structures which more than often goes hand-in-hand with an international sport like football, here the uniting factor is solely being the passion people had for football. This new form of subversion created a unique space for the people from the villages of Malabar. The social relations then existing appears to be communal where people coming from different areas and sections of society believed in this new space created amid them.
Most children in North Kerala grow up being closely associated with football among other games. Some indulged in an everyday affair of barefoot playing with children of their age and elders in the paddy fields and shores of the land. It isn’t a rare sight to witness these elder people taking them under their wing. This then becomes an unspoken alliance of companionship. With the mixing of talent and means football linked people across generations. There wasn’t a lack of talent even if there was a lack of means. Here we understand how inclusivity plays an essential role. Sevens struggled a lot for years and when they had the available resources it was passed on to the ones who didn’t. In the 1990s they were almost at their peak and decided to spread this game that they absolutely lived for. Through the continuous initiatives by people involved in the functioning of Sevens, children from teenage groups were provided with the necessary training.
On being asked about the resources they had in store for playing football in their time, Ashraf Baava mentioned that they didn’t have access to a ball let alone jerseys, shoes, and other things. He remembered how they used Thunnipanth, a roll of rough fabrics made into a ball or sometimes make use of Olapanth, a ball made out of dry coconut leaves to play football. Under such circumstances and being aware of this lack children were provided with footballs, jerseys, shoes, and socks in such training camps. They were given appropriate physical training under a coach. We can see diligent young players immersed in the training provided to them. A long pass from one generation to the other.
football
In image 15, we find teenage boys in cotton vests snug and comfortable taking their places in the group. Such vests are mostly worn at home in a leisurely space, the same is used for the purpose of playing. The children are from different age groups and there is no clear demarcation apart from standing according to their heights which goes with the tradition of group photographs. We cannot help but notice a direct sharp gaze pointed at the camera making their faces and expressions seem uniquely raw. There is a mixture of emotions at display with some grinning, serious and goofy faces uniting all of them with a similar hairstyle. It could be something peculiar to the game or maybe the cultural impressions of the time period they were living in. Where some seem extremely young and of a lesser age others show a hint of pubescence in their light moustaches. As opposed to the general notion of associating body structures with a particular sport, players here are of different builds and ages. Football is a game where people with technique can prove to be much better players than those possessing a conventionally well-built body.
In image 16, three players stand in close proximity, embracing each other’s presence and cherishing the moments of being captured. With a foot on the ball and their hands holding each other, it feels as if there is something powerful keeping all of it in place. There is an evident sense of unity. The harsh sun makes their eyes squint, casting blended shadows of players on the ground behind them. It is as if there will be proof of the days they might’ve passed playing recklessly. They resemble professional players with carved calves, high spirits, and a taste of sportsmanship. These kids might’ve grown up becoming crazy footballers and some would’ve passed on whatever they could learn to the others. The image also makes the presence of the photographer felt by the shadows cast on the foreground.
Photography traveled to India by the 1840s, the same decade when it was introduced in Paris. Though it has been argued that the development of photography as a medium owes its roots to Arab thinkers, Europe began the development of images for the first time in history. The initial years of the camera in India happened with the backdrop of feudal and colonial systems at work. That went on to develop the etiquettes of how the subject will be portrayed. There was a mix of colonial and feudal aesthetics at play, photographers were employed to capture the images of royal families. After the world wars, there was a shift in the subject image and point of focus in photography. The aftermath of these wars laid bare the historic devastations caused by the nationalistic ethic. This machine saw the falling and rising of power structures and systems of oppression.
During the British rule Indian photography was still in the shackles of western occupation which made the movement restricted to certain aspects. There was also a lack of representation and accessibility. The general public couldn’t find themselves in the royal frames. Apart from this, there was a sense of selection as to what is photographable and what is not. By the end of 1945, India also saw partitions and a rise in the number of refugees. All this marked itself in the images that were to create the pages of history. By post-independence, we find a rise of photojournalism and a more flexible sense of personal and social discovery. Post-1950s there was a rise of studio culture in India which gave an increased agency to the common people. More and more local studios
flourished in most of the major cities. There was a state of ease in being looked at by the people from the same communities. An implicit power structure exists between the photographer and the subject which was being replaced. This was the first time that people could examine what it is to be photographed. This also enabled a culture of subversion which now began to dissociate from the fixed identities. With that, the people desired to explore their identities in this new framed ‘independence’. Studios became sites of this exploration and experimentation. Families on special occasions visited studios for group photos and there was a state of excitement to wait for the developed image. Studios also enabled a mix of cultures and identities with the available props and various images for display. These rooms with dark walls and sometimes black cloth provided an altered sense of reality. People who lacked financial resources to go for a holiday can now make images of themselves with a painted mountain or sea in the background. With time there was an exceeding amount of intervention in how these places can play with the form of image-making. The idea of an image imparting a set of ideas and values were possible with the upcoming studio culture in the Malabar region, Some studios doubled up as involved in the football game and in the act of image-making. The possibility of having access to a studio and darkroom gave clubs like super studio a possibility of intervention and making their own narratives, to document their own histories. This allowed them to use the medium and create yet imaginative visuals with the same.
There is an immersion of cultures and values in the images showing the beginning of a match. The villagers, players, and even the people carrying out processions have a societal commonality which when put together can invoke a sense of social and cultural aspects of a certain region. Public gatherings can be an interesting tool to understand the ethnic peculiarities of a place. A culture of public spectatorship and collectivism has always been closely associated with rural areas of Kerala. Villages function as the hubs of these socio-cultural activities where various art clubs, film collectives, and libraries are places of idea formation, active engagement, and discussions. This is difficult to be imagined in other regions where the absence of this collectivity is prominent. The Malayalee identity formation comes from these regional specificities which uphold certain shared values. Developing cities and urban areas create gaps in folk interests with the metropolitan and capitalistic impact, which can be disputed in the case of Kerala. For instance, in cities like Calicut, we can still see people engaged in such ritualistic gatherings. The land politics of an area is a part of what forms the outlook and overview of a certain group. And Malayalee crowds have always been in constant communality. They bond through festivals like Pooram where people from different religions can be seen together showcasing theatrics at their peak with the blending of live sound and spectacle. The people are an essential part of such performances. Other than festivals this could be seen in political rallies, snake boat races, and so many such instances, the idea of collective choices and formation works through such factors.
Football in general carries an air of theatrics, but this is embossed all the more when we talk about Sevens in Kerala. From the arrival to the contemporary scenario we are familiar with how this foreign game was embraced and beautifully localised in Malabar. From the rules to the mannerisms they are known for picking out things from larger football scenarios and then shaping them in their own flavours. Here the playground becomes an open field of communal intimacy and collective spirit. The ground provides a space of melting diversities. We find this flux in the image where different cultures can be seen to coexist. Chenda Melam is reminiscent of Kerala culture performing at large, in the second image we find a military band at play. Chenda is a percussion instrument played in parts of Southern India whereas the Military band played by the locals is something that was borrowed from colonisers. All this is carried with inevitable performativity. The play goes on from the beginning to the end, with loud cheering voices, commentaries, musical instruments, and the reflection of all these sounds coming back from the ground. During the game, a goal is cheered with the rising and falling of voices from the public accompanied by the thumps of chenda. Also one can see that the football ground becomes open to the traditional forces of collectivity and spectatorship perhaps a regional equivalent of the Coloumbian pop star Shakira singing in Fifa world cup event or Beyonce performing in the super bowl halftime.
The playground appears to resemble a graveyard without the presence of fans. Football has never merely belonged to the players but to each and every person connected to the sport. The crowd of people like a pool of excited spectators feels like a part of the game, back then they related to the simplicity that these makeshift grounds offered. The Uruguayan Journalist Eduardo Galeano captured the yearning of all football fans when he wrote of us, “ I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: A pretty move, for the love of god”. It wouldn’t be bizarre to assume that every kid grows up playing or listening to the stories of football in Malabar and when they come to an age when it becomes difficult for them to do so they watch and linger on. A community imagination is something that binds people through common threads of passion and happiness. A certain regional pride is linked to the aspect of looking up at people who have been really good players, representing the state nationally and internationally.
Football does have heroes and they are often “born in a straw crib in a tinroofed shack and he enters the world clinging to a ball” as Galeano points out. This idea here appropriately examines the bonds linking players and the fans, as both grow up in similar households, wearing similar kinds of clothes and eating similar food. Most are even from the same families, related to each other, and end up joining a team. Sevens have always been highly localized as most of the people enjoy watching and playing football it is not difficult to hear if fans and players are related through kinship. What makes Sevens fandom
unique is this socio-cultural relativity. We observe men wearing mundu in the crowd, something that maybe the players too wear, and enjoying beef porotta with suleimani after hectic matches. There is a lesser class gap too thus, players and fans in Sevens share more than regional belongingness which makes this fanaticism all the more special. In this sense, the sport and spectator become both social and political reclaiming the identities and spaces. It is interesting to note how public imaginations can differ from nation to state to regions, what kept the spirit of sevens alive is the fandom they are surrounded with. In 2020 when the country was facing a selective suppression of identities the Sevens stadiums across Malabar turned into places of resistance. The echo of goal cheering followed with the chants of azadi, standing up against the draconian NRC-CAA-NPR bill which was passed by the right-wing govt. Time and again Sevens have proved to be living a mirthful life of rule-breaking struggles.
Premier Tyres Kalamassery, Santose Club Pookottoor, Kalamassery Princestar, Black & White Kozhikode, and Super Studio Malappuram are some of the teams that carry regional names with them. World football teams are often named after the nearby cities where Sevens teams go back to the roots naming themselves after local villages they come from. Some are named after the shops in neighbourhood localities they might’ve grown up in. It might seem odd and unconventional but this also shows the impact a homeland can have on the people. People from different walks of life were a part of this madness, it is fascinating to note that government organizations like KSRTC were also playing Sevens football.
In the football events hosted internationally, billboards and digital boards are used for displaying multinational brand names for the purpose of advertising. Whereas in Sevens matches we find names of the local grocery, textile, and other shops on cloth banners hung on contours to promote them or to acknowledge the amount they might’ve invested for the matches. Similar to how the international football advertising and team naming influenced the Sevens there was also a change in their clothing style. There is a noticeable variation in styles and colours in the jerseys throughout. Teams can be seen wearing different jerseys ranging from professional looking to more informal ones, from pullovers to crew necked t-shirts. Over the years this also changed as there was a slow shift towards loose-fit jerseys. Where the players are seen in similar t-shirts and jerseys other members associated with teams casually stand in the images with their traditional mundu
We can see that several interventions were made on the photograph, especially done on group photographs. A player visibly missing in the coloured image is seen to be a part of the group photo in its black & white counterpart. In image 28, a team member from the bottom right corner is absent whereas in the next image we find a cut out part of the missing player holding a football carefully pasted in the vacant corner. The absolute importance of each team member here is nothing other than the integrity that held Sevens together. Both the images are now a part of their old photo collection thus putting an emphasis on the journey of absence to presence of everyone in a team.
They also used darkroom techniques like hand-painting where we observe in some images a clear contouring of their clothes, shoes, and sometimes the entire group. With time, print fades away from the cloth but these people tried to emboss parts where the team names should be. In image 28, some players stand in jerseys with chipped off print. In the latter group image, there is a clear attempt of creatively handling this by painting the club name on the jerseys and even filling in the faded red colour. Vivid colours are used to mark a visible contrast in the newly made changes. This is a more celebratory and intimate group photograph and the team name emphasises the collective identity they held onto. Apart from this they also used the same technique to hand paint the calves and shoes of the players. In image 20, we find an intense focus on the team which is done through hand-painting the borders
of the group in black. An interesting contrast can also be seen in the black & white and color images. The coming of color images also signifies a passage of time. Whether it is the hand-painting technique or making the presence of an absent player in the image with the help of a simple technique of cutout, there is a sense of merging the two. With this merging, there was also an attempt to unify the medium of image-making and the game of Sevens football with a similar set of spirit. It also shows mediation between the existing relationship between players and their different sense of aesthetics. Just like the obsession with football, a similar passion towards exploring different image making techniques is evident.
The adjacent image shows the team members lined-up inside a studio keeping their trophy and a football close. The dark surrounding walls in this small setup provide enough room for the entire team to fit in. In addition to the more prevalent style of team photos, the exteriors and interiors get superimposed in some of these photographs which are taken in different localities. We can see much more than players merely inculcating sportsmanship, and posing with their winning trophies and folded arms. Through their interactions in personal spaces, we find that the postures, clothes, and body language changes. The dynamic backgrounds in these team photographs gives us an idea of how the personal blends with the social here. In most of the images, there are hints of tropical Kerala landscape and sociological markers. In one unusual image, the team poses on a terrace with picturesque hills in the backdrop. In another such image, there is a hint of a faded sickle and hammer symbol scribbling on a concrete roof somewhere in the background. These markers along with some repetitive elements provide the important regional relationship existing between the land and the players. The cluster of coconut trees and thatched roofs are prominently visible in some images. Few are evidently captured in villages with the players carefully folding their arms and keeping one or two footballs in place with a planned harmony. There are other engaging images in front of sheds, tea shops, and rural households. In some way or the other, the surrounding locality remains deeply ingrained in them. These archival images of players standing together, merging the important spaces that were a part of their journey, become historical when witnessed in the present.
The team spirit shown on a field is not just limited to the boundaries it offers, this further extends to the leisure time they spent together. Their sportsmanship has always been rooted in the brotherhood they share. Like good friends they enjoy watching matches together, argue about their favourite teams, and end up turning all of it into something celebratory. They are also known for organising football match screenings for the people around their localities and other such initiatives that bring people together. We are not accustomed to witnessing this sort of intimacy among team members, especially beyond a playground. These images, however, successfully manage to keep that closeness intact. A cinematic and meditative image on the shores of a beach shows the group in a calm composure in their everyday clothing. This coloured photo in a pastel palette giving an impression of them looking at something in the far corner. There is one photograph taken near Yakshi statue1 from Malampuzha which is yet another image showing the group revel in front of an important landmark on a trip. They appear like a group of friends on a vacation taking touristy photographs in public sites.
The personal circle is entwined with the celebration of their professional victory. In one such instance, we find men in a mixed crowd from various ages posing for a group capture with trophies in casual shirts and vests. They do not make it appear as a rigid team moment like we usually see in sports teams. Players are feasting together after a trophy win in another such captured moment, some of them look at the camera and smile while others are holding bowls of rice and curry. We also note a change in their body language in these images, instead of standing in a customary group photo fashion they look relaxed and more at ease here.
1. Yakshi, a mythological figure, was sculptured by Kanai Kunhiraman, one of the most famous sculptors of Kerala, in the year of 1969. The statue is colossal in size and is created out of a single section of rock.
Perhaps the relationship between photography and sports can be traced back to the initial decades after the invention of photography in 1839. When we consider Eadweard Muybridge and his studies of motion as a precursor to the cinema of the Lumiere brothers, it can also be considered as a precursor to the photography of sports. In the 1880s onwards movement in sports was captured by the camera. Flexible and transparent celluloid film was marketed for the first time by George Eastman in 1884. Sports photographs were now able to convey action. Through technological evolution and optimization throughout the century, photography opened up ways for amateur photographers. The reflex camera with its interchangeable lenses turned photography into real means of expression.
With new advancements, different technologies like instant replay, goal-line technology, and VAR (video assistant referee) came into play. They relied on imaging technology and camera apparatus. This went on to make further modifications to the functioning of the game. Instant Replay enabled to go back in time and replay the moment that has already taken place. It was first used around 1976 and has been there ever since. It changed the experience of watching televised football matches for the viewers. Goal-line technology helped in examining if the ball has passed the line or not. This helped with efficient decision making concerning the goals scored. Both these innovations led to better functioning in a way without disturbing the continuity of matches. On the other hand, VAR has been treated with mixed reactions from the
players and fans alike. The last call of the referee can now be reversed with the ultimate conclusion through VAR. This proves to be problematic as decisions are sometimes highly subjective in football. Incidental actions like handball cannot be taken into consideration while making a final call. Adding on to these problems, when a team passionately celebrates for a goal scored it gets ruptured and reversed with VAR. Thus, over time VAR has existed to be a hiccup in the intrinsic game flow. These innovations alter and bring about a shift in the history of football. If we look back in time the technology of goal postponement did not exist back when Maradona scored the iconic “hand of God” goal in the World Cup. And now it wouldn’t allow him to score “another goal against England, this time with the right hand” as he wished.
In 1952, Henri Cartier Bresson proposed one of the most fascinating and highly debated concepts in the history of photography “ the decisive moment”, An image composed masterly to seize the essence of an impromptu event, to capture the fleeting, quintessential, and instant in the flow of events. This particular way of capturing the essence of the transitory moment is perfectly suited for the purpose of sports. This mixture of ability and chance of capturing go hand in hand with the game of football. Players control the ball with their head, foot, or any other body part other than their hands, completely contrary to what a photographer does. The photographer plays with his anticipation and hands to create images. The players can revive themselves with another episode of brilliance with a well anticipated pass or a spectacular goal, The
photographer can’t get the image of a moment once its passed with both predictable and unpredictable moments. Especially with football, unlike other sports,there is an omnipresent factor of uncertainty up until the final whistle, that cannot be predicted until the last second of the game. It is only those with a sharp reaction appeal that get hold of the unique moments in the play of field. With the photographer, there needs to exist basic familiarity with the sport. There are certain moments of magic that happen inside the field of play. Be it a player dribbling past four defenders, a crucial save by the keeper, or the lastminute goal, some actions at a precise point that convey drama, excitement, or anticipation are considered more important than the others. Such images are not created or produced unless the photographer is familiar with the game.
In the action images from this collection of photographs, the familiarity of the photographer with the game is almost tangible. The image maker can be imagined to extend the theatrics of his movements in close proximity with the goal post, players and the playground. Players move inside the field chasing after the ball being rolled on the ground; they jump, defend, pass and kick. In image 71, which is captured with the point of view of the goal-post, we can assume the positioning of the photographer crouched on the ground, the kick feels close. These images might have been captured with access to a 35 mm single-lens camera, they did not have a zoom lens and that could explain why
the photographer seems to be moving at a close distance. The clashes and saves become important slippery moments to be kept and savoured from a game. It became easier because of the familiarity with the locations and important moments. A person without a zeal towards the game would not be able to understand the sheer urgency of a goal being made or saved. The disappearance of the photographer is compensated with the image, his work speaks in the ways he offers to show the world around him through the eye of the camera. Through our imagination we find him chasing the players who are busy running with the ball. He continuously performs with the camera which makes it possible for him to feel closely the tensions of the game and the locations of the ground.
Image 61. Players during a game , C. 1980 | Super Studio Archive
Image 84. Women’s football team , C. 1980 | Super Studio Archive
The football field opens up to a world that reflects the society existing outside it at large. A sport is not formed in a vacuum and here too the politics of caste/ class/gender/race are apparent. People from the oppressed communities have been fighting for their rights against racism, sexism, and homophobia in all sectors which can be seen in this territory too. The bias extends from the field to fandom. US soccer player Megan Rapinoe is known to be highly vocal about gender issues and thus faces a lot of dissatisfied reactions. She is both highly criticised and loved for being vocal about these issues. Most of the greatest international footballers of all time evidently choose to remain silent about these issues. The ground is an echo chamber of a fan base and teams, where both are represented and shaped by each other. This can best be understood if one recalls the famous chant, “We want equal pay!” post the US Team’s 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup victory. It is ironical that when men play, it is just called FIFA World Cup and not Men’s World Cup. Similarly, Men National teams and club titles denote a geographical area as a whole whereas women’s teams are specifically denoted with the title of “women’s team”. Recently a 29 year old Iranian woman Sahar Khodayari who desired to watch a match had to disguise herself as a man to enter the stadium, she was charged for this crime and later burned herself to death. Women in Iran are banned from watching men play football in stadiums, despite the fact that this violates FIFA’s constitution. The ironic takeaway from this incident is that the stadium is called “Azadi” stadium which translates to freedom. In Kerala, there are some rare historical accounts that women used to frequent tournaments like Sait Nagjee
in Kozhikode as spectators. In absence of the stereotypical attributes that are assumed to be coming through people from different sexes, the masculinity of all-male brotherhood is cheered and celebrated on the field and outside it. The football world in general has always been a heteronormative space. As most of the public domains in Kerala are occupied by men, the ground does not remain an exception to that. This lack can be felt by those who remain systematically deleted, in this case, the people who identify themselves as women and/ or queers. A geographical contradiction surrounds this argument as Kerala is taken to be a region of radical politics. Sevens, in addition to a medium of passion was a major source of earning for the members as most of them were coming from underprivileged backgrounds. The social fabric of exclusionary sexism was paralleled to the sport equally. Even with a deeper reflection, we would fail to point out a single woman from the group of organisers and crowd of spectators. We witnessed the performance of masculine bodies through the camera eye till now. The three images that stand out here point out how women like P.T Usha or actress Urvashi had access to show their presence. A woman has to earn her societal and professional reputation and only then she can hope of even entering this world of football mania. We should not miss out on how this structure also puts extreme pressure on men to keep this performance of the masculine accomplishment static. The image of the women’s football team ignites a spark in the overall lack. Sometimes as a site of resistance where women reclaim this loss of existence. A complete rebellion to how she should behave and much skin she is supposed to show.
Ashraf Baava is a photographer and footballer who was born in 1955, he has been one of the most influential members responsible for the upliftment and functioning of Sevens. Most of the images in this book were sourced from his collection. From an early age, he spent most of his time sketching and painting (along with enjoying football). This evolving into his passion for photography, took his interests further as an adult; up culminating as his career. He grew up rejecting the conventional norms of career and schooling and was thrown out of his home for not wanting to pursue higher studies. He got access to a studio space through an unemployment scheme rolled out by Malappuram municipality and has been engaged with it ever since. He ended up sleeping in the studio for years aspiring to live a life he desired. He did not expect to create an important documentation of the Sevens. Rather he was immersed in exploring the medium by capturing the essence of happenings around him. It has been decades since his journey as a photographer and footballer has been long continuing. Like Maldini, Ashraf Baava has been known for his tackles in Northern Kerala. We hear stories about his tough sturdiness on the football ground which sometimes went on to intimidate the strikers from opposite teams. This explains some notorious nicknames given to Ashraf ka by his fans like Kurrikal, Thangal, and Vettukathi. He played a major role in introducing players like I. M Vijayan to Malappuram football scene. To this day he recalls about Vijayan “the thin guy who used to sit on my lap when the jeep was packed with passengers”. With his initial centre back position on the field he went on to become a coach and then got involved in administration work of Sevens Football Association. A passionate oddball at heart, Ashraf Baava also experiments with colours and canvas. In addition to his deep obsession with cameras and football, he is also an actor and a painter. He recently battled and recovered from cancer and is now back to engage with his daily doses of art, image making, and football.
Photography as an event has always existed along personal and public occasions. With the increased accessibility of cameras there was an attempt to portray personal events. In this manner only important occasions were savoured for the future which were mostly limited to the indoor spaces. Photography is used as a tool to preserve the reminiscence of such occurrences. In this collection even the minute situations are captured and preserved. The process of documentation seems different in various ways, focusing on everyday events related to their lives - public gatherings, ticket counters, team meetings, tournaments, celebrations, trips, chief guest visits, and so on are captured.
I am yet another addition to the endless world of football lovers, and so it was fascinating to come across this collection of photographs. It is surprising that Sevens is rarely studied when it comes to football related research. These collections weren’t properly digitised and were kept casually stacked in studio shelves and personal albums. For the members of Sevens association this has been an effort to document their engagement with football and capture their collective narrative. Since the images were a nostalgic part of their personal histories, often these photographs ended up being a part of their personal albums. Apart from their albums and studio shelves, these photographs also found visibility in the magazines initiated by Sevens. By the beginning of 2000 they started working on publishing magazines with several issues dedicated to different clubs. They included commentaries, essays, reviews, fiction, and nonfictional works in them, mostly dealing with the aspect of football and public viewpoints regarding that. Apart from mainly localised and regional context related to football they also contained the happenings about world football.
The nature of this mix between the private and public archives gives it a unique position among the cultural and personal histories in the larger sense. This collection exists in a semi-public/personal space giving it a transitory nature. There were minimal boundaries when it comes to how and who made these images. All clubs were equally photographed by whoever had the access to the camera. They considered each club a part of the whole that makes Sevens. Thus, the sport competitiveness among clubs turns into a sense of brotherhood outside the football ground. The contribution of this work is spread out and not solely limited to the idea of ownership. In that sense it becomes a true collection of Sevens collectivism.
When we look at this now in retrospect it combines with various happenings in and around them. In a way through this we understand the regional peculiarities that shaped and contained Sevens. Images then become significant beyond their limited intention of documentation and also leads to the forging of local identities of the community. The photographic work of Sevens forms an essential historical element in the history of photography in Kerala. The process of preserving images comes with a sense of historicising the past. I found the collection of these photographs rather peculiar and different from the general visuality of football. There is a portrayal of regional and cultural history in these images which challenges the mainstream football imagination. Sevens forms a sub-culture within the larger framework which makes the visual history of football more complicated. Collection of images from two of the clubs are explored in this book. There might be various other image archives of different clubs which would further illustrate their unconventional history of football.
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