At IIT-B, football played EPL way

Harmin Shah, 20, will be auctioned at the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B) on Monday. Last year, the electrical engineering student was picked up for 265 points.

Harmin Shah, 20, will be auctioned at the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B) on Monday. Last year, the electrical engineering student was picked up for 265 points.

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Shah is one of the most coveted players in the Institute Football League (IFL) on the IIT-B campus. One of the biggest events on campus, IFL is based on the English Premier League, with managers bidding for players, and teams even named after famous European clubs such as Manchester United and Barcelona.

“While the idea of IFL was conceived three years ago, it picked up a lot of steam last year, with sponsors such as Canara Bank, Fitz magazine and Hokey Pokey ice-cream and over 400 students being part of the process,” said Jerin Jolly of IFL.

Of course, the corpus is small, a grand total of Rs 16,800, distributed in proportion to the points amassed by each team through the season. The tournament spans seven match days in March, with four matches played on each day and professional referees hired to officiate.

Being on a football team definitely ups the players’ cool quotient too. “There is definitely an element of cool in playing for the IFL… everyone on campus knows you,” said Shah.