Football in India is the country’s second-biggest sport, and according to Iain Hume, the atmosphere at ISL matches makes most Western leagues look like library readings. The Canadian international — who played for Kerala Blasters, Atletico de Kolkata, and Pune City across five ISL seasons — joined Footy Prime to break down what Indian football is actually like from the inside: stadiums packed to triple capacity, fans perched on bus rooftops to catch a preseason friendly, and a football culture that’s growing faster than most people outside Asia realize.
Is Football Really the Second-Biggest Sport in India?
Cricket obviously dominates, and Hume isn’t taking that away from anyone. But the idea that India is a cricket-only country doesn’t survive contact with the facts on the ground — especially on the west coast and in the east.
“They’re especially in certain parts of India. The southwest coast of India like Goa — being a Portuguese colony, there’s a lot of people out there with Portuguese names, Fernandez and Desas. You go down to Kerala down the west coast, they’re absolutely bonkers. Kolkata where I played for two seasons, it’s got the second oldest derby in world football — Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, they’re either side of Kolkata, and I think it’s only second to one of the Brazilian rivalries. It’s insane.”
“It is confirmed second. It’s stupid like — you go to the east coast and you’ve got Kolkata. You go to the southwest and you’ve got Kerala. Every Indian, you struggle to find one that doesn’t love cricket, but football is second and it’s not close.”
The regional breakdown matters. Goa, Kerala, Kolkata, and the northeast — these aren’t places where football is a novelty. It’s baked into the culture, and the fan support reflects that.
What Are ISL Crowds Actually Like?
This is where the conversation went from interesting to genuinely jaw-dropping. Hume’s descriptions of the atmospheres in Kerala and Kolkata don’t sound like a second-tier Asian league. They sound like something out of a football documentary you’d assume was exaggerated.
“They’ve had games there where they’ve had an 80,000 or 70,000-seater stadium with 160, 170,000 people in it. They’d literally come onto the field right behind the sponsor hoardings and they’d be eight feet from the field and nobody policing them and it is what it is — they just loved it.”
His preseason story from Kerala might be the best illustration. The Blasters had been together for two weeks. They played their first behind-closed-doors friendly on a half-built stadium with freshly laid turf.
“The buildings of the stadium had no roof — it was like a concrete shell, had doors, windows. We started warming up and people started walking past, going from work. By the time we kicked off the game I swear we had about five thousand people there and they were sitting in the open windows and doorways of this building, they were sitting on the fences, parking their buses up next to the fence so they could see properly and sitting on top of the buses. It was just like — the hell have we got into here.”
“Everyone looked at each other after the game thinking this could be nuts.”
It was. The Blasters went on to make the ISL final that first season, and by the semi-final, the stadium that held 69,000–70,000 had an estimated 85,000–90,000 inside.
“They were on the rafters, they were above by the lights on the roof of the stadium. We were like Dortmund — we were in yellow, so it was a sea of yellow everywhere. We scored within the first eight, ten minutes and the place erupted. We couldn’t hear anybody. We won the game 3-0 and the place was absolutely bonkers.”
How Did Kerala Blasters’ First ISL Season Play Out?
Hume’s first team in India was the Kerala Blasters, managed by David James as player-coach. On paper, they were underdogs — other clubs had marquee signings like Luis Garcia, while Kerala had James in goal and a squad of what Hume calls “gritty foreigners” and experienced Indian veterans.
“We were favourites for the wooden spoon because our designated player — when everyone else had Luis Garcia and players like that — we had David James, and he was the player-coach. Craig, I’m not taking that away from a keeper, he was a phenomenal keeper, but he wasn’t gonna go out and win a game for us if that makes sense.”
“We had a bunch of very good Indian older statesman players and then gritty foreigners. We didn’t have the flair from Spain. We didn’t have Brazilians. We just had a bunch of gritty, gritty players.”
That underdog group made the final on chemistry and effort alone, eventually losing in the 95th minute to a golden goal. Hume was voted Player of the Season.
“I got voted by the reporters, the owners of clubs, the coaches — I got player of the season. Elano from Man City had an incredible year, he was still physically able and he was phenomenal, but I’d done equally as well goal-scoring wise and I think they just loved what I gave and I was still fit.”
What Was Atletico de Kolkata Like?
After Kerala, Hume moved to ATK — Atletico de Kolkata — the ISL franchise with a sister-club relationship with Atletico Madrid. The setup was professional and distinctly Spanish.
“We would do our preseason in Spain, at their historical preseason camp which is an hour northwest of Madrid. We’d do that for a month and then go back to India. I did that for two years.”
The challenge in Kolkata was different from Kerala. When the ISL launched, the historic Mohun Bagan and East Bengal clubs weren’t part of the league — ATK was the only Kolkata franchise, and the club had to try to bring those rival fanbases together.
“Because the Super League started, they tried to amalgamate the Mohun Bagan and East Bengal fans because they weren’t in the league. They’re now back in the league but they weren’t at the time, so the only club in the ISL was ATK. We had to amalgamate the fans which was a tough ask.”
Despite that, ATK dominated early ISL history, winning three of the first five league titles. Hume was top scorer for the club both years he was there and made the Team of the Year in both seasons.
The Contract That Fell Through
After two strong years at ATK, Hume expected to return. Instead, the club decided to move on from their Spanish coaching setup, and the new manager had different plans — without ever properly meeting Hume.
“I got a message. I was going swimming with my family on a Thursday night, pulled in, phone goes, looked down, said to my wife — you’re gonna have to go in and go swimming on your own, I’ll be in a minute. Called my agent. They’ve decided to go a different way, they’re appointing a coach next week and you’re not in his plans.”
“For the guy that never met me properly — I probably shook his hand once when I was playing in England, might have played against one of his teams — never met me and goes nope, Hume’s not fit enough, he’s overweight, he’s this, he’s that. For what you’re paying him I can get two or three players.”
The new coach became the first manager in ISL history to get sacked. Hume, meanwhile, went back to Kerala and played arguably his most complete season — missing just nine minutes across 16 matches, including the semi-finals.
“I played what, 14 games, 15 with — well 16 with the semi-finals — and I missed 9 minutes the whole season. So for me to be labelled without meeting me or seeing me play or train as unfit and overpriced — I actually said it in an interview afterwards when they gave me the award. I said well this is an interesting trophy to be receiving. A couple people can take it home and sit on it if they want to.”
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Should More Players Consider Playing in India?
This is where Hume got genuinely passionate. His argument is simple: if your dream is to play professional football and make a living doing it, why would you limit yourself to your home market?
“It’s professional soccer. As much as you promote the CPL and that — great for players to go to the CPL — but if somebody doesn’t get looked at for the CPL because of one thing or another, are they going to stop their journey?”
He pointed to Marcus Haber as the perfect case study — a Canadian international who had injury struggles in the CPL, got criticized, then went to Cambodia and thrived.
“Boy goes to Cambodia and kicks everyone’s ass. Why not do it in India? You’re not going to look at your CV at the end of your career and go I played Premier League, I played here — but it’s still professional football and it’s your dream. If you want to play professional football you go and play professional football.”
“Would you rather play for League One Ontario and get expenses paid and say that’s the extent of your career, or are you going to go and try and travel the world and see what’s available? Haber just won player of the year, he won the goal-scoring chart two years in a row, and he got to move to Thailand at 35, 36 years old. Players who finished their careers playing Premier League and La Liga are going to Thailand, and Marcus Haber — who was criticized left, right, and centre in the CPL — he’s gone and the guy’s absolutely shredded, he’s a freak of nature, he works his ass off.”
Where Does India Rank Among Hume’s Footballing Experiences?
Hume played for Leicester City, Preston North End, Doncaster Rovers, and Tranmere Rovers in England. So where does India land on the list?
“Insane. I played for Leicester, incredible club, loved every minute of it. Played for Preston, loved it. Won a league with Donnie, played with Tranmere, great — but the atmospheres, you can’t even compare. It’s absolutely insane. There’s no other superlatives.”
“I literally went there to avoid the politics and just get a new adventure. It was a draft system — I didn’t know where the hell I was going. I didn’t sign for a club, I literally signed for a pool of players. I could have ended up in Northeast United.”
The carnival atmosphere was a hallmark of the ISL’s early years — pre-match countdowns on the big screen, fireworks on goals, flares as players walked out.
“I felt like Stone Cold coming out. They did a huge thing about it — the Ambani family, they own Reliance, they’re very invested and dedicated to the game. They’ve put a lot of their own money into it. It is a money loser, it’s not going to be a money maker, but they’ve put the money behind it and they made it special.”
Can India Ever Qualify for a World Cup?
Hume was honest, and diplomatic.
“Do I think they’ll ever win a World Cup? I would pretty much put my life on no, and not out of disrespect. Qualifying for a World Cup — I wouldn’t put that beyond their stretch. Give them some more time and I think they have a better opportunity if they continue to progress.”
“The men are 124th in the world. The women are 68th — they were in the top 100 a couple years ago which was huge. Where were Canada when we were playing? We were 80-odd. I think the highest I ever got was 45, 47, I was normally in around 70, 80. And we’re a country who had players all around the world playing — they broke a hundred which was amazing.”
It’s a fair point. Indian football is still a long way from the World Cup, but a trajectory is a trajectory, and the domestic appetite for the sport is clearly there.
How Is the Icelandic Viking Clap Connected to Kerala?
One of the more surreal details: after Iceland’s famous Euro 2016 run and the Viking clap went viral, Kerala Blasters fans adopted it — and scaled it up.
“We’d signed an Icelandic kid, Jon Bensson, and it was right after the whole Viking clap was introduced when Iceland beat England. They started doing it at Kerala and there was literally nearly as many people in our stadium doing the Viking clap as there was in Reykjavik. There was probably 65, 70,000 people in yellow doing the clap.”
Kerala is 9,000 kilometres from Iceland. Football culture doesn’t care about geography.
Is English Widely Spoken in Indian Football?
Hume admitted this was one of his biggest concerns going in, and one of the non-issues once he arrived.
“You go out there and unless you go to very rural towns and villages, they all speak English. They’re all very well educated. There’s a lot of people I know out there that speak American English — they sound more North American than I do. It was never an issue, which was — trust me — one of the issues that I had when I first signed up to do it.”
Iain Hume played five seasons in the Indian Super League across three clubs. He was ISL Player of the Season with Kerala Blasters, a two-time Team of the Year selection with ATK, and remains one of the most accomplished foreign players in the league’s history. He currently lives in Canada.
