Indian expatriate launches football website

An expatriate's desire to keep in touch with Indian football from Germany prompted him to start an Internet site, which he says is now growing steadily.
Arunava Chaudhuri, an expatriate Indian born and bred in Germany, launched www.indianfootball.com in 1998, which he claims gets on an average 300 to 350 hits daily.
"We get an average of 300 to 350 hits daily but the hits fluctuate as it depends if matches are on. Some teams have a larger fan-base than others," Chaudhuri, a student of English and Information Science at the Heinrich-Heine Universitaet in Dusseldorf , told IANS in an e-mail message.
The hits fluctuate as it depends on the teams involved in matches, as some teams have a larger fan-base than others.
The 28-year-old told says his site got closer to 1,000 hits when East Bengal won the ASEAN Cup and when an Indian under-18 team won the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland .
"The site had its highest hits in July this year - close to 1,000," he said.
A self-confessed Indian football fan, Chaudhuri says his site has been recognised by the game's world governing body, FIFA, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the work it has done.
It has also been the official web site of the three England tours of the Indian team in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
"We have now twice successfully organised our indianfootball.com awards elections," said Chaudhuri, adding that plans were afoot to make it a big event.
Chaudhuri, along with his joint chief editor Chris P. Daniel -- and Abhishek Gujral from Kolkata - work for about one-and-half to two hours every day on updating the scores and news, and answering e-mails.
They spend more time during holidays and sometimes also at weekends, whenever possible.
As it is a non-commercial web site, the costs are borne by the three. Chaudhuri says his dream is to see the Indian team qualify for the World Cup.
"The biggest possible dream would be to see India play in the 2006 World Cup here in Germany, which I fear will remain only a dream," he said.