ISL 2022-23: We didn’t cope with it as well as we should have: Bengaluru FC owner Parth Jindal on playing in the absence of fans

Bengaluru FC owner Parth Jindal admitted that his team didn’t cope with the pressure of playing without the fans as well as they should have. The last two editions of the league have been played behind closed doors due to Covid-19 however the fans will return back to the stadium in the upcoming season.

Earlier, the Blues captain Sunil Chhetri had also spoken on the same lines and had said that fans coming back this season will make a massive impact.

Meanwhile, Parth Jindal reckons the club is going through a transition phase at the moment and it hasn’t been easy for them.

“It’s been a tough few seasons, I think whenever successful and you’re very successful, which we were in the first two seasons in the ISL, there’s a transition phase and we lost a lot of our experienced players as they were coming to an end of their careers, whether it was Dimas Delgado or Erik Paartalu or many others,” said Jindal in an interview with BFC TV.

Jindal was happy to note that the young players like Roshan were able to impress with their game in the previous edition.

“What was really encouraging about last season was the way our youngsters performed and stepped up whether it was Roshan, whether it was our young goalkeeper. But things didn’t go as planned off the field that led us to making a difficult decision to part ways with Marco after what I’d say was a good season,” revealed Jindal.

“We’ve spent quite a lot of time going back to the drawing board and I think we set ourselves quite nicely for the upcoming season,” he added.

Reflecting on playing without any crowd support, Jindal said, “I think it’s the same for all teams, nobody enjoyed it, nobody enjoyed playing in that environment and I think some cope better than others and unfortunately we didn’t cope as well as we should have,” he concluded.

Bengaluru FC will kick off their ISL 2022-23 campaign against NorthEast United FC at the Shree Kanteerva Stadium, Bengaluru on the 8th of October.