Jamshedpur FC

With the first match of the season less than two-weeks away, the excitement for the football fans in Jamshedpur is at its peak.

Jamshedpur Football Club CEO, Mukul Choudhari, briefed the media ahead of the season.

Here are the excerpts from the interaction:

On Pre-season training and practice matches…

The team has been bonding well and are mixing up in training and off the field too. That’s the whole point of having the pre-season in the end.

Owen Coyle has been focusing on fitness of the players too as many of them haven’t played a competitive match for almost seven months now (last matches played in February/March 2020). The coach demands high intensity from his players and pre-season training is of paramount importance.

The team has already played a couple of practice matches and will be playing two more practice games in the coming days.

On the developmental players promoted to the senior team…

We promoted 10 players to be available for the senior team from the Reserve and the U18 squads of the previous season.

Four of them - Manisana, Manash Gogoi, Billu Teli and Vishal Yadav (goalkeeper) have been retained in Goa and others will be called to Goa on basis of requirements of the coach.

On missing the fans and the ISL Fan Wall…

All the clubs will be without their fans, and that direct emotional connect will obviously be missing.

However, credit goes to the ISL and Star team for making the concept of the Fan Wall possible. Jamshedpur FC will be conducting contests for the fans to be able to feature on the Fan Wall. This will be a good opportunity for the fans to be connected virtually at the stadium. Around 20-30 fans will be selected per match for the same.

About the Fan Wall and how Jamshedpur FC fans can be part of it –

The ISL has given supporters of each club a chance to be part of a LIVE video Fan Wall that will be streamed into stadiums and on LIVE television during the matches.

The live video feeds, each of which will feature 20 to 30 supporters from each club, will be made available to broadcasters and to the clubs for use on big screens during matches.

Jamshedpur FC will be conducting contests on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages starting today to select the lucky winners. All the fans have to do is answer correctly a simple question to be able to have a chance to be part of the Fan Wall.

The winners will be chosen at random.

On challenges in Goa…

Well, we were mentally prepared for the challenges. We knew it’s not going to be as easy as it is back home in Jamshedpur. For example, in Jamshedpur our practice ground is right downstairs at our players’ accommodation, but here, in Goa, it’s a half-hour (12-kms travel) one-way. But, the league has taken great initiatives and have been really helpful to help all the clubs settle in. It’s a massive task to conduct a tournament of ISL’s stature in the current situation and the organisers have done a fabulous job to help us all.

On the home venue - Tilak Maidan Stadium in Vasco, Goa…

The ground is being shared by four teams, Jamshedpur FC, NorthEast United, SC East Bengal and Hyderabad FC. It will be very different without the fans and not being able to play at The Furnace, but we have to adjust to the new normal.