Tezpur: Sports unites, it connects communities and people regardless of their background, race, or nationality. However, the recent violence in Manipur seems to have divided even the sports that earlier used to unite everyone.
The ongoing clash between the Meiteis and Kukis in Manipur seems to have divided the soccer teams on ethnic lines. While players from both the communities used to share the same camaraderie and were part of the same team earlier, the violence have divided them on ethnic lines.
The divide between the two communities came to the fore at the Polo ground in Tezpur where the Rajen Borthakur Memorial Tezpur Challenge soccer competition is underway.
"The violence started in May last year. Till then we had Kuki players in our team. But not after the violence started, after that we had to shift them (Kuki players) to their villages for safety. Now situation is not such that we can have Kuki players in our team," said Milan Koijam, Camptain of the FC Imphal city.
Koijam, however, took pride while sharing that some of the former players of his team, who belonged to Kuki community, have now been playing in Indian Super League (ISL).
"Situation is very bad in Manipur now. We can’t even practice properly as curfew has become the order of the day. We are ready for practice, but curfew and the current situation is affecting the sports. We sometimes practice when our village defence parties had to guard us," he said.
"Before the violence we (Meiteis and Kukis) used to play together. But now since the situation is not good we cannot go to the valley areas in Manipur for playing football and the Meiteis also cannot come to our hill areas," said Mamang, Manager of Kuki football team Football 4 change in Manipur.
"Peace is the best solution for everyone. Violence solves nothing, it just spreads hatred. We hope peace prevails in Manipur soon so that we play again together,” said Mamang.
Manipur is known as the powerhouse of sports in India, particularly for football. Several players from Manipur have made significant impact on Indian football—domestically and internationally. While players like Renedy Singh, Gouramangi Singh, Manitombi Singh have become synonymous with Indian footballing excellence and have inspired a whole generation of aspiring footballers this season of the Indian Super League also has at least 50 soccer players from Manipur playing for different clubs.
While Punjab FC has the highest eight number of players signed from Manipur this season, teams like Jamshedpur FC and North-East FC have six players each. Kerala FC has five players signed from Manipur while the Bengaluru FC, Chennaiyin FC, Odisha FC, and FC Goa have four players each this season.
