Swagatam BANERJEE
Editor (Calcutta)

It was around midnight when I got a call from my friend, Sujay, an avid football fun.

“Swagatam, I’ve been made a correspondent for IndianFootball.Com,” he stuttered.

“Indian football what??!!” I replied, unaware that I was passing through a watershed moment in my life. My thirst for football was about to be quenched like never before and this time an entirely Indian cuisine was on the menu! Sujay introduced me to the Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Arunava, later in Calcutta and I was offered a trial run to cover the IFA Shield, 2005. IndianFootball.Com needed to see whether I could fit into their first team plans and I needed to find out if the role of a sports journalist was compatible with my career in medicine. The rest, as they say, is history………….

I am often taunted by the cricket-crazy public that football in India is dead. I am quick to point out that that is one of the main reasons we are trying in our own small way to revive the game in our country. It’s very easy to sway to the tide but to swim against it, it takes courage and determination. What those two attributes can do in combination can be proved by a simple fact – we have grown from a young man’s dream in Germany to a way of life for thousands of fans of Indian football not only in India but all over the world. However, although our tenth anniversary is a time for us to pause briefly and celebrate, it is more an inspiration to achieve higher goals. Over the last two-and-a-half years that I’ve been associated with IFC, the number of visitors has increased dramatically. The encouraging words in our guestbook have shown that we are heading in the right direction. Thanks to the persistent efforts of our Editors-in-Chief, IFC has managed to develop a corporate identity and extend its latitude beyond sports journalism per se. We don’t know how many young footballers or football fans have actually benefited from our efforts but if our efforts have helped even one person in the field of football, then our labours have not been in vain.

The tragic part of an imminent milestone is that one keeps awaiting its arrival but it fleets by in a moment. As this moment follows the same gameplan, we hope that you will support us like you always have as we change tactics, try different formations and strive to achieve further accolades. If we fail to satisfy you, caution us but don’t show us a direct red; because wherever you are, whatever you are and whenever you want, we will always be there to FOOTBALL YOU.