Sevens Football; a special Kerala recipe

Sevens football, a special Kerala recipe

Sevens football is simply means a football match consists of seven players in a team with slight differences in rules and regulations from the football recognized by the FIFA. This variety of football has been played in Kerala especially in Malabar region. It's a fever in the districts like Kozhikode, Kannur, Malappuam, Palakked, Trissur and Waynadu. The fever firstly catches Malappuram district and then spreads to the other districts also. The season starts usually in the month of December. For six months from December the villages in Malabar eat, drink and sleep football. A lot of tournaments are undergoing during this time.

Two categories of tournaments are there. Local tournament and all India tournaments. From the very name we will get the meaning that local tournaments will be locally arranged and all India tournaments will be with the participation of teams inside and outside Kerala. All India tournaments will be played in a specially arranged temporary galleries and football enthusiasts from various parts throng to the stadium to watch the games under floodlit.

SUPER STUDIO MALAPPURAM, KRS KOZHIKODE, JAWAHAR MAVOOR, SABAN KOTTAKKAL, MEDIGUARD AREACODE, AL MADEENA CHERPULLASSERY, FIFA MNJERI, BASE PERUMBAVOOR etc. are some famous teams in sevens football in Kerala. In major tournaments a team gets up to Rs. 4000 for a first round match. A team gets approximately Rs. 9000 for playing in the semi final match and up to Rs. 20000 in the final match. A player gets minimum Rs. 500 per match.
Some slight changes in by law are there in sevens football. As told earlier the number of players has been limited as seven in a team. Ground and the goalpost are smaller than international match. Total duration of a match will be 40 minutes; two halves of twenty minutes. If a player has been booked by a red card another player can be deployed by the manager in the place of him.
Almost all players are from Kerala but there are some are from foreign countries like Sudan, Nepal, Nigeria, Ghana etc. One team can have only two players from outside India.
But beside all these Kerala Football Association (KFA) is against the sevens football as it's against the law of FIFA. But sevens football contributed a lot of talented football stars to the Kerala national team.