Members of Red Miners, an official fan club of Jamshedpur FC, are gearing up to back the Men of Steel in the cash-rich Indian Super League (ISL) starting in Goa on November 20.

T-shirts, scarfs, caps, banners and posters highling support for Jamshedpur will be in place before the Tata Steel-owned club launch their campaign against Chennaiyin FC at Tilak Maidan on November 24.

“Though the pandemic has played a spoilsport but it has not affected our enthusiasm. Like every season, we are going to support our team to the hilt. We will keep fans connected all the time,” said Sheikh Imran, a member who is arranging the merchandise.

Imran said they’ll remain connected with Jamshedpur FC in Goa by virtual screening via zoom. “There’s no option than to use the social media for supporting our team. We will send updates of every match to our members through social media,” the Mango resident added.

There are around 2,000 members on the Red Miners rolls while as many are from Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Calcutta. “We regularly conduct fan meetings. Slowly and steadily we grew in numbers . We are still growing and we are currently around 4.000 fans strong. We manage things on our own and we thank the members for the same,” said Utsab Ghosh, another member.

Members of Red Miners with a banner before a match in Jamshedpur last year. Bhola Prasad

The members of Red Miners, which was formed with the inception of JFC in 2017, make it a point to watch all home matches involving JFC at the Furnace (JRD Tata Sports Complex). The stadia always simmered with loud cheers and support.

“However, this time it is different. But we’ll make our presence felt on the social media. We’ll cheer and support our team like we did at the Furnace. We’ll wear the team jerseys whenever JFC plays,” said Ghosh.

“When the club came into existence, four or five of us started a small group. We made a Facebook page called Jamshedpur FC United. We started making plans via Whatsapp group, added as many people as we could who were interested and before we knew it, the count reached 100 before the club’s first match,” recalled Imran.

Members of Red Miners watch an ISL match at JRD Tata Sports Complex in in Jamshedpur last year. Bhola Prasad

According to him, they were already keeping the fans updated on the JFC team and their fixtures. “Each and every details related to our team will be shared between us. We are highly optimistic about the prospects of JFC. The club has signed some top-bracket players in form of Nerijus Valskis and Peter Hartley to name a few. We are sure JFC would make it to the play-offs this time,” Imran added.

The Jamshedpur-based fans of JFC made their presence felt by watching Jamshedpur’s away matches streamed live on a giant screen at a ground outside JRD Tata Sports Complex for the past three years.

Jamshedpur FC CEO Mukul Choudhari said from Goa they were looking forward to the support from fans. “We need their support even though we are playing in Goa. Jamshedpur FC is their (fans) own team. We want them to back us to the fullest,” he added.