• November 16, 2022

Keralite football fans in Qatar welcomes England at FIFA World Cup: ‘Beckham made them fans’ (Video)

DOHA Nov 16: England’s World Cup squad were welcomed at their team hotel in the Qatar capital of Doha by scores of Indian expatriates from the state of Kerala who are passionate supporters of the England team, say reports.

A video of England fans outside the England team hotel ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar has gone viral.


According to reports it says thousands of Keralites who live in Doha back the England international sides other than their own. But they have been accused on social media of being “fake fans” in the pay of Qatari organisers to boost numbers and make the tournament look more credible to a worldwide television audience.

Those outside the Souk Al-Wakrah hotel strongly denied the suggestion. Reports in The Telegraph said that they had bought their own tickets and paid for the matching fan club shirts they wore. Gireesh Edavana, 42, a mechanical engineer from Kerala, living in Doha said that the allegations he and his friends had been paid to be there were “fully fake news”.

He said there were 500 England fans from Kerala in his supporters’ group alone. “Most of us support England because we loved David Beckham when he was a player,” he said. “It was him who made us England fans. We were really shocked when we saw the news that people were calling us fake fans. We don’t know where it came from.”