OrFans provides a digital platform for football fans without countries in the coming World Cup

The World Cup is a time when many diehard football fans become orphans, with no country in the running to call their own. The feeling, as Italians have rediscovered after half a century, is not a good one.

But this time, one app is giving fans the opportunity to become, what they call, OrFans. There are 207 countries that participate in the World Cup. Only 32 manage to qualify for the cup every four years, making soccer fans in the rest 175 countries, OrFans.

Conceptualised and developed by Emmanuel Upputuru, an award-winning creative director based in Gurgaon India, the platform aims to link (or)fans to their adopted countries in a deeper, more meaningful way. 



Upputuru, explains: “Every Soccer World Cup, I would stay late and watch most matches. When our own country is not playing, we look to cheer for a country that is. And for some reason I would always choose Brazil. I felt, what if there was a platform that recognised fans like me and brought us together? A digital platform that lets fans feel part of the country they adopt and also be part of a larger community of fans who support the same country.”

Whether for a match or the entire tournament, OrFans lets fans adopt the country they want to support.

Based on their choice and the app’s various partnerships, the app customizes their experience to showcase opportunities to connect with other OrFans who have adopted the same country, organise screenings, discover more about the country they are supporting and even win cool prizes along the way.

OrFans offers team-less fans the greatest advantage. After all, these OrFans get to adopt any of the 32 countries that they want.

Emmanuel continues: “My vision is that this summer the world will be divided into 32 countries. And on 15th July, 2018 the world be divided into just two countries.”

While many apps provide the latest score and feeds, OrFans also lets you know the number of OrFans of the same country close by, the total number of OrFans in the world and lets you connect with them on the platform.

Of course, once you adopt a country, you adopt all of it. Which is why, the app also provides you with information about the food, fashion, national anthem and language of the country.

The app is coming soon to Android and iOS.