Does Sporting Goa’s Pull-Out from I-League Signals Another Crisis for Indian Football?

Sporting’s Departure from the Coming I-League May Result in a Critical Situation
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Sporting Clube de Goa’s pull-out from the forthcoming I-League season 2016-17 triggers another mini-crisis in Indian football. The Goan outfit on Tuesday announced their withdrawal from the top flight league of the country. They follow city rivals Salgaocar and are expected to be followed by Dempo SC in the same route.

In a strongly-worded statement, Sporting lashed out at the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its president Praful Patel for pandering to the demands of marketing partner IMG-Reliance, while sidelining I-League clubs from the decision-making process in the much-touted ‘merger’ of the top-flight with IMG-R-owned tournament Indian Super League.

Sporting’s pull-out comes months after AIFF had proposed a longer domestic league season, with ISL as the top-flight and I-League being demoted to the second tier. This step motherly attitude by the parent body towards the established football clubs of the country saw an exodus of top-flight teams from the I-league, following the emergence of Indian Super League (ISL).

Clubs like Royal Wahingdoh, Salgaocar, Churchill Brothers, Pune FC, Bharat FC, and DSK Shivajians have all been pulled out of I-League citing “lack of a proper roadmap for the league and financial inability to cope up with the franchises; Sporting being the latest entrant to the list.
The governing body had set up a taskforce to look into the initial proposal, but Sporting and other clubs have alleged that they have not been taken into confidence by AIFF in the decision-making process.

With the withdrawal of the Goan clubs, the future of the I-League has once again been thrown into uncertainty.

The football fraternity of the country saw a glimmer of hope for the game to develop with the national team making its return to the Asian Cup in 2011 after a gap of 27 years by virtue of the country winning the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup. After years of international ignominy, India was emerging as a promising footballing nation.

With growing corporate investment in the sport, greater focus in youth football, a competitive but undersold league in a country possessing a growing fan base for the sport, and a national governing body armed with a Rs. 700 crore deal with a financially powerful joint-venture IMG-Reliance, things were looking up for football in India.

Nearly six years down the line, it’s been quite a dramatic turn of events for Indian football. Over the years, I-League clubs have blamed AIFF for failing to come up with a revenue structure that would allow them to sustain operations in the long run.

The governing body’s failure to do so has seen many football entities to either go out of business or curtail their operations. The Indian Super League’s arrival has made survival tougher for I-League clubs.

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In recent years, the I-League has continued shrinking in size, with the number of clubs now in single figures and the upcoming season likely to feature the lowest number of clubs in India’s top-flight history.

The exodus is expected to continue. Indian players are today finding it increasingly hard to find playing time due to the low number of top-flight clubs. The present situation is unlikely to inspire much confidence among the young footballers of the country, some of whom will represent India in next year’s U-17 World Cup.

While ISL clubs are much well-funded than the average I-League club, they have suffered significant losses in the first two seasons, and some of them have been forced to cut down on their spending this year.

The financial sustainability of these clubs and ISL, as a whole, has come under the scanner over the last couple of years. For instance, the tournament doesn’t have a broadcasting revenue stream, with Star India owning a stake in it. In modern football, such a system isn’t likely to be a profitable one. However, that hasn’t stopped AIFF from being largely supportive of the tournament.

The act of approving a financially unsustainable model, while refusing to reform the existing structure, rather illustrates AIFF’s unwillingness to find a long-term solution for the problems plaguing Indian football.