You clearly haven't been to India. In general, people in India are passionate about football. You will be surprised at the premier league, CL, FA cup, Carling cup coverage in India. Tons of fans in most major urban areas in India follow the premier league. In states like Bengal, Goa, Kerala - the entire state is mad about football. Like proper mad. Take a train ride through Kerala at any point and you will see atleast 2 football matches going on.
For example, the East Bengal Mohun Bagan derby in Kolkata regularly gets more than 100000 people in attendance. I think the highest recorded was 130000. Tons of passion associated with such clubs with social implications. I think East Bengal fans are mainly descendants from Bangladeshi refugees and Mohun Bagan fans are traditional Kolkattans or something to that effect. For example, one of my colleagues here in the US is from Kolkatta and a big time East Bengal. He assured me that one of the certainties he has in his life is that there is zero chance of any of his kids, grand kids, great grandkids of supporting Mohun Bagan. When I M Vijayan (India's greatest ever footballer and darling of Kerala) quit Kerala police and moved to Mohun Bagan, he became the "Michael Owen" of Kerala.
I did not have cable TV in my house till 1996 and had only the national TV channel Doordarshan(DD). So I did not have access to PL. The only football I watched was Indian football and international football. I have fond memories of watching Federation cup knockout featuring the Kerala Police golden generation - Pappachan, Vijayan, Sathyan- battling Salgaocar, FC Dempo, JCT Mills, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal. The quality of football was obviously lower but the intensity and passion in the stands matched up with anyone. Currently I am in the US and do not have access to these tournaments. But if I end up going back to India, I will most likely cut down the time I spend on watching the premier league and follow Kerala Police FC attempting to reclaim there golden years.
Finally, India has a population of 1.3 billion. Even if only 10% of the population follow football, that is still a lot of fans.
And if India at any point starts producing players good enough to play in Europe, I will most likely become as unbiased as
@Kay Age El in promoting them in LFC related transfer threads.
