With Bengaluru FC hogging the limelight in the ongoing I-League, we take a look at the inner workings of the club; the nuts and bolts of the country’s most modern leagueA few days ago, an innocent post with a blue jersey sent Twitterati into a frenzy. “Been a privilege, Bengaluru FC,” the tweet by John Johnson, defender of the city-based I-League club, read. “Look forward to a new adventure with Chonburi FC in Thailand next year!”Some enquired whether it was an April Fool’s Day prank while others were too shocked to say anything. And among the worried messages that BFC’s media manager Kunaal Majgaonkar received were that of Huma Westwood from England. “Are you serious? The kids are crying here! How can he leave?” the message read.“You see dude? That’s how close-knit we are,” Majgaonkar said. “Anything happens anywhere to any of us and everyone comes together like a family.”Of course, Majgaonkar wouldn’t use the word ‘team’ to describe Bengaluru FC (BFC). For it is not just that. To use a cliché, it’s a family, with JSW (Jindal Steel Works) as parents and Ashley Westwood, the coach, as the big brother. The players obviously add to the lineage but the ones who complete it are the supporters, West Block Blues. There’s even a dog, Dimitar. And there’s Huma Westwood’s wife.v v vThe year was 2013. In a small conference room at a glitzy five-star hotel in Pune, Mandar Tamhane, a former Indian football team manager, and Mustafa Ghouse, head of JSW Sport, set out to find the man who would run the show. Air tickets were sent to six special invitees and one had to be picked. But only an assistant was hired that day.Along with that assistant, Pradyum Reddy, the then coach of Pune club DSK Shivajians, a flurry of young and talented Indian players followed. A few days earlier, on May 12, 2013, Indian captain Sunil Chhetri, part of Churchill Brothers, landed in Pune to play Air India in the I-League. “He was the first player we made contact with,” Tamhane, the chief technical officer of the club, said later. “We told him this would be a new assignment and everyone would have to start afresh. We gave him time to think about it and he later got on board after resolving his contract issues.”Soon, two turned into 20. “Sunil and the others that we signed were all good-mannered,” Tamhane says. “But we still needed someone with a flamboyant personality. That’s when Robin Singh (now injured and no longer with the team) came in. At that time, I was having lunch at Sunny’s on Lavelle Road. I suddenly saw his manager Sukhwinder Singh there. We knew that the striker was free after his contract with East Bengal. But it was an important selection because he could fit the image of a bad boy in the club.”Far away in England, Venky’s, a Pune-based poultry company which owns Blackburn Rovers FC, had sacked the coaching staff, including then assistant coach Westwood. But all turned out well in the end when he got the call from Pune, a few days earlier. “Tamhane, also from Pune, obviously knew Venky’s. My name got suggested and after that, I spoke to the management and there was the usual interview process,” Westwood, a Manchester United academy product, says.With that, the baby was born. Johnson and another defender, Cur­tis Osano, flew in after Wes­twood and BFC got into business.v v vOn the eve of BFC’s must-win game in the 2013/14 season in Goa against Salgaocar, the gaffer ordered everyone to remain indoors.They all had to share with the room something that nobody else knew. Former BFC striker Johnny Menyongar stepped up first. “I lost my mother during the civil war in Liberia,” he said as the room remained speechless. Sean Rooney, who left the club last year, added: “Cancer has claimed both my parents. I lost my mother at nine and father when I was 15.” Everyone else had to share something but let’s say what happens in Goa stays in Goa.Later they would realise it was a team building session. It was an exercise to concentrate on the crucial game at a time when they and three other teams – Dempo SC, East Bengal and Salgaocar – were in contention. And predictably, BFC won that game and proceeded for a final title charge. They even won the league in their debut season with one game to spare. And amazingly, three years on, they are yet to be beaten by any of the Goan clubs – Churchill, Dempo, Salgaocar and Sporting Clube – in Margao. “Everything is built around team spirit,” Westwood later explained. “We recruit good characters. There is no place for ego in this team. Anybody — be it a foreigner, Indian, the national team captain or even me for that matter — we are all one. We are pulling and pushing one another to a common goal. If someone jeopardises this unity, we get rid of them. We work hard and even if we don’t win, we lose together.”In the team, everything has a time and place. It’s all structured depending on what they need on the field and off the field. Elementary things such as nutrition, travel, clothes, equipment and staff management are all organised. “It’s basically a family based team and everything comes from the top,” he adds.v v vIt was the first time in the city for Englishman Johnson and Kenyan Osano. Majgaonkar wondered how to break the ice with them and he was strangely tasked with taking the duo out.“I didn’t know what to do,” Majgaonkar, who’s originally from Mumbai, says. “I immediately called up my aunt, who stays in the city, and frantically told her ‘Just make something. There are two foreigners coming with me’. We munched on homemade rotis and chicken curry and not even for a minute did it cross my mind that they might not like Indian food. Mind you, it was their first time, and they absolutely loved it. Westwood brought them in for that reason – they mingle.”Two years later, after the I-League season, Majgaonkar and Chhetri had driven to striker CK Vineeth’s wedding in Kannur, Kerala. By the time they had reached Vineeth’s hometown, news had spread that the Indian captain would visit their village. The public flocked, even from nearby villages, to get a glimpse of Chhetri. Vineeth looked bewildered. “Come late for the wedding tomorrow,” he told Chhetri.“Why?”“Sunil bhai, everyone is trying to take a photo with you forgetting that I am the one who’s getting married. At least tomorrow, you come when there’s half an hour for the ceremony to be completed so that there are enough wedding photos of mine.”Chhetri eventually went at 2 pm and still hogged the limelight, but Vineeth had enough pictures to manage a wedding album.In three years of existence, there hasn’t been a single training bust-up among the players. It’s friendship and mutual admiration for one another that binds them together.v v vLiving with the Bengaluru FC team is no different from the life in a hostel. The guys usually assemble at Chhetri’s room if they have to watch a game, because he owns the biggest TV in the team. Johnson’s room is for chilling in his comfy L-shaped couch, aptly named General Anestesia. There’s always some cooking going on in the rooms of the northeasterners, who look for ways now and then, to have meat and discreetly cheat on their diets. Majg­ao­nkar’s space is for light music and indoor games. The partyman in the hostel was obviously the bad boy, Robin.“My son cannot sleep early in the morning because of the loud music coming from one of your rooms,” a woman staying in the same wing as the BFC quarters in Lingarajpuram said in an email to the club. She was referring to Robin, whose routine it was to wake up to hip-hop as the clock struck 6am. The club responded with an apology to the woman but the music continued.“Robin’s music didn’t stop, but the volume was considerably reduced,” Majgaonkar said. “We all learnt to co-exist, the squad members and public. As we went on to win the I-League title, the woman later invited us to a special ceremony and the kid did a ceremonial guard of honour for us. We were new to the city and there would be tenant issues but we were warmly welcomed.”And that’s when the most important member of the family came in. The fans.“We knew all along that our social media presence and connect with the supporters is the most important thing for the club to exist,” Tamhane said. “I even told our social media team, Kunaal and Aakash Vinay, that if you don’t stay and travel with the team, all the hard work that all of us put in would be of no use. That’s why every social media post is discussed with everyone. Of course, it’s Kunaal’s baby but we are all kept in the loop.”The club now has one of the biggest fan bases in the country. To go purely by social media presence, the BFC fan page has more than 1,50,000 likes. The fan group, West Block Blues, has 11,000-odd members. But it definitely did not come easily.Westwood himself did a door-to-door campaign in the Central Business District to spread the club’s message in the initial days. Majgaonkar often joined him with posters, pleading bar owners and cigarette shops to post them prominently.The club has had its ups and downs. Strangely, Westwood’s most memorable moment is when his team lost the title on May 31 last year to traditional rivals Mohun Bagan. BFC needed a win to retain the title while Bagan needed a draw from the last match. A first-half goal by Johnson lit up the Sree Kanteerava Stadium. BFC had one hand on the title already only to be shocked by an 86th-minute strike by Bello Razaq.“Losing the league gives you added grit and determination to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Westwood said. “It was the worst day of my life at that time but it made me hungry. I wanted us to work hard to make sure it never happens again.”v v vWestwood gave the boys an off after their win in an Asian-level competition to a Myanmar club, Ayeyawady United. Chhetri, Majgaonkar and Johnson, the funnyman of the club, had a crazy idea – go on a holiday to Pattaya. It was one of those spontaneous things.The team usually doesn’t get time to explore the cities they are visiting because of training and curfew. But in Thailand, they could be free. Majgaonkar has a knack of collecting football jerseys of local clubs and in Pattaya, he came across the jersey of Chonburi FC. The Thai team has the same sponsors as that of EPL club Everton and looks very similar to the Everton jersey.Back home, Johnson got another crazy idea. “Let’s do a photo shoot,” he told Majgaonkar. Chonburi’s media team too played along, retweeting Johnson’s so-called exit from BFC.“Thank you Chonburi FC for playing along,” BFC reassured their fans. “The wall is not going anywhere. All off, blue on.”Today, the system is in place and there’s free-flow in all the units. The stars are playing, coaches are teaching, analysts are watching, trainers are pushing, administrators are supporting, scouts are spotting and importantly, fans are cheering. The baby has grown into a three-year-old aiming for its second league title. There’s lots more to be won for BFC.