Guwahati, Sept 23: Highlander Brigade, the omnipresent supporters’ group of North East United FC, will unveil Asia’s largest-ever handmade tifo during the club’s first home match of the Indian Super League (ISL) against Mumbai City FC on September 24.
The 12,375 sq ft tifo will incorporate the heritage of the region. This will be Asia’s largest ever handmade tifo unveiled during a football match. The size of the tifo would be 165ft x 75ft. “It has taken us around 15 days to prepare the tifo so far which included drawing, painting, tailoring of the clothes used for it,” the Highlander Brigade said.
“We faced a lot of challenges during the entire process. Owing to the huge size of the tifo, finding a space big enough for our tifo had been a stumbling block, but NEUFC were kind enough to allow us to prepare the tifo at the stadium itself.
The work for the tifo had been going on at the Sarusajai stadium for the last few days but because of incessant rains in Guwahati, we had to shift the tifo, which is around 60kgs in weight, from Guwahati to Abhayapuri, Bongaigaon.
Now, our members in Abhayapuri are working day and night to complete everything on time. In this regard, we would also like to convey our heartfelt gratitude to Abhayapuri Kala Parishad Bhawan for assisting us with a space to complete the tifo,” the Highlander Brigade said.
“We aim to foster an environment of passion, love and solidarity for the beautiful game of football in our region and a fan culture akin to top footballing nations in the world.
The passion of our members who have been working tirelessly since days, right from self-funding the tifo to preparing the necessary artworks, working by braving the rain, transporting the whole setup almost 200 kms away, and resuming work at Abhayapuri, has reassured us that we’re going in the right direction. Be it rain or storm, we’ll brave them all and do everything to showcase our heritage on the stage of football.”
