As the news surfaced that there will be a Football league in India which will be similar to Premier League or Major League Soccer, as a football faithful I was excited. I quickly took out the transformation that happened to the English League as it turned into a commercial and global football powerhouse. Before I could dwell more I got to know it will not be a revamp for of the I-League but it will be a separate entity altogether, while still wondering how AIFF would handle a new league over an existing struggling product in the form of I-League.
With several announcements and postponement Indian Super League was finally a reality. After the first season of ISL it is wise to quickly see a brief analysis of both the leagues and see if a merger is on the cards in the near future.
I-League
In 1996 National Football League was launched in an attempt to give a new lease of life to Indian Football and make the clubs administration in a professional manner. However the attempt didn’t succeed and in 2007 I-League was introduced with the goal of moving ahead with a better marketed and managed package of Football. There have been critics of I-League that it is concentrated in certain pockets such as Western and Eastern India with the rest being ignored.
In fact with the closures of clubs such as JCT and Mahindra United was a rude shock that all is not well with state of affairs of Indian Football. There have been players who have gone abroad as a result of their good showing in I-League such as Subrata Pal, Sunil Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, RB Leipzig etc. but this can be attributed more too external help. Few observations which we have for I-League and how the clubs operate:
- There is some lack of organization and cohesion for I-League and AIFF, as I-League is still the main draw it unfortunately doesn’t get the deserved support.
- The Broadcast and the Production still have a long way to go, especially with the TV Timings and the quality of play doesn’t help either, with only the games in Balewadi starting at 7.00 PM and the rest are played at earlier spots which have minimal TV audience available.
- There is some impressive work by Bengaluru City FC & FC Pune in developing football in respective areas. These professionally run clubs illustrates what is possible in the Indian Football Market – stable organization, professional staff, sponsors, attractive stadium with floodlights, average crowds of 5,000-8,000, schools contact programme, soccer camps and a residential youth academy. Similar model needs to be built across I-League.
- If the above is followed there can be more impetus in involving corporate participation in the league and that would result in an increase in the marketing spend and in turn increase eye balls for the I-League.
Indian Super League
It will be safe to assume that Indian Super League is one of the best things to have happened to Indian Football in a long time. It did manage to get eyeballs on ground and on Television. What also helped matters was famous marquee players making their presence felt in the league. Whether it was Del Piero, Robert Pires, Lujnberg, Elano, David James or Trezeguet all these players have had massive fan following in India and their presence gave an automatic lift to the game.
With the power and might of IMG-Reliance behind the league, it was ensured that everything would be spectacular and the finer nuances were taken care of which unfortunately never happened with I-League. Few observations which came out of the recently concluded Indian Super League were:
- Getting renowned International Players got people to turn up on-ground and watch matches on their television sets too. According to reports there were 15 Lacs spectators on ground with an average of 24,357 making it fourth most attended league in Football and the most attended league in Asia and almost 41 Crore viewers watched it on their television sets.
- Playing with the legends of the game definitely helped the young Indian players in improving their game. Indian talent also captured the eyeball of international audience; recent speculations around Arnob Mandal and a move abroad are a testimony to the same.
- Around 41 Brands participated in ISL in different categories across central and team sponsorship which is unprecedented for any football competition in Indian Subcontinent region.
- The analysis of TV ratings will be interesting as the quality of play was understandably not comparable to Premier League, La Liga or other foreign leagues but it certainly opened up a new fan base in India for football viewership.
- With all the good things there has to be something which was not that spectacular. There were heavy investments made by club and the reported losses will also be massive. We are sure this would have been accounted for and the future season ahead can definitely help in recovering the initial investments.
Should I-League and Indian Super League merge?
There have been speculations about both the leagues merging in the near future. Some still maintain that I-League is the real football league in the country, but the numbers suggest a different story. As both the leagues want to develop football in India, they may be merged while keeping these considerations and advantages in mind:
- Just imagine the company of top international players for three months or so was helpful to Indian players, how will it impact if the league runs for an entire season.
- With the Indian weather and the grueling ISL schedule, if the games are better spread out it could help a lot of players with enough recovery time. This is only possible if there is a larger window to play with.
- Let the existing clubs stay and the new clubs join in. There are new entrants in I-League as well as ISL, however Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and all other existing club should also be involved as this would have more thrill and spike in the competition.(Just imagine if there is Atletico De Kolkata added to the Boro (Kolkata Derby), that will be exciting!)
- With the merger of both leagues, if it ever happens it should be AIFF & IMG-Reliance responsibility to professionally guide the clubs in ensuring that there are no clubs going into administration due to losses. They cannot guarantee it but at least can put check mechanism in place.
- Have a level playing field for all the clubs, post the merger where there would be a two tier league system with relegation also being a feature.
- As ISL is already a well marketed product and will hopefully grow strength to strength the I-League clubs could slowly be placed in the league while ensuring a smooth transition
- It is also the need of the hour for AIFF to get its house in order and have a fixed policy in place
Whether it ever happens is a different story, we all want a scenario which is beneficial for the game of football in India but what happens behind closed doors in boardrooms will always keep us guessing.
Image Source: The Guardian