Football, COVID and a political controversy: Why BJP spokesperson’s post irked Kerala’s Man United fans

Worldwide, fans of the European soccer large Manchester United are upbeat over the membership’s rise from the hunch that adopted legendary membership coach Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. However, the fans in Kerala appear to be irate for causes removed from their membership’s exploits on the turf.

What irked them is a current post by Bharatiya Janata Party’s State spokesperson Sandeep G. Varier, during which he invoked the membership’s identify to attain a political level.

“FC Kundungal has refused to play Manchester United,” he wrote on Facebook.

The seemingly-innocuous remark was an obvious dig at a part of normal speaking heads at tv information channel debates who threatened to boycott debates internet hosting Sreejith Panicker, an alleged right-wing sympathiser and a common at tv debates.

This is in protest towards an allegedly sexist remark made by Mr. Panicker concerning an incident during which two volunteers clad in PPE kits saved the lifetime of a COVID-19 affected person in Punnapra on May 7. A video of the severely sick affected person seated between the duo and being shifted to a hospital from a domiciliary care centre on a motorbike had gone viral on social media.

Mr. Varier’s remark implied that the folks scared to tackle Mr. Panicker on tv have been taking the straightforward route out.

Meanwhile, Rekha, one of many good samaritans who took the affected person to a close by hospital, has filed a police criticism towards Mr. Panicker.

Comments galore

Many of the feedback underneath Mr. Varier’s post ranged from harmlessly hilarious to downright abusive. There have been additionally some severe observations on the futility and the injustice of the comparability drawn, and some questioning the selection to pull a adorned membership into a low-cost political slugfest.

“Unless you delete the post at the earliest and apologise for your act, we United fans will deal you physically and legally,” learn one sarcastic remark in an obvious reference to a well-liked dialogue from the current Malayalam flick Joji starring Fahad Fazil. It got here from the chairman of the Manchester United Supporters Club Kerala.

Another offended rant equated Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Glazers household, the U.S.-based homeowners of the membership, and how every was unhealthy for the nation and the membership respectively.

A fan turned slightly sentimental and rued how the membership was a far cry from its superb days although it nonetheless remained a model.

“First score at least one goal and then talk about Manchester United,” stated one other fan posting a ‘0’ in a dig at BJP having secured zero seats within the current State Assembly election.

Another selected to remind that each Kerala and Manchester United was pink and commented that it wants “boundless degree of shamelessness” to make use of the membership to justify an alleged sexist.

Meanwhile, the Kozhikode District Collector used the recognition of the episode to unfold a message of hope for these reeling underneath the pandemic.

“We may have gone behind in the first half but we will overcome. Because we are United,” he posted after the membership went behind within the first half in its English Premier League match towards Aston Villa on Sunday. The match ended with Manchester United profitable.