Bengaluru FC's letters to four rival teams

The Bengaluru Football Club (BFC), which is playing its second and home leg of the AFC Cup in the city tomorrow (October 19), is a step closer to making history. Having drawn its match in the first leg against Malaysian team Johor Darul Ta’zim FC on home ground, all it needs now is a win to take it to the final, making the team the first from India to do so.In a bid to get the country to root for it, the Bengaluru team sent out letters to four of its national football club rivals — Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Shillong Lajong and Aizawl FC. The team’s media manager, Kunaal Majgaonkar, says, “We are hopeful of making it to the final and want all of India to root for us. We sent out four letters to four of our fellow Indian football clubs asking for their support to cheer for us at home.”
“We got an immediate response from the East Bengal team, in which they expressed their support. Similarly, Shillong Lajong also said that they would cheer for us and will put up a video online asking their fans to rally around BFC. The Bengaluru fan group of Mohun Bagan pledged its support and confirmed its presence at the semifinal fixture through Twitter, while we are sure Aizawl will also cheer for us. We wanted this semifinal match to go beyond the national rivalries and get India to cheer for football as a whole,” adds Kunaal.