ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the disjointed facets of Bengali football culture such as development of football grounds or evolution of spectator culture. In the modern world, sport and environment are often stated as complexly interrelated phenomena. While environment usually plays a vital role in the shaping of sport’s incidents and cultures, the physical geography of sport, in particular its relationship with the local environment and micro-climate, remains a decisive factor in sport’s popularisation and commercialisation. Conventional urban history of late colonial Bengal does not offer any concrete ideas about the evolution of open space and its utilisation as sports grounds. The pressure on land in urban Bengal multiplied with a new wave of refugee influx from Bangladesh to West Bengal in the context of the Bangladesh War of 1971.
