Indian football to possibly have a new road-map next month as per the discussions at the AIFF office. As per reports, the central part of the discussion has been revolving around the growth and footprint expansion for football in India involving all stakeholders – the players, infrastructure, the national league and the commercial partners.
Mr. Patel mooted the idea for a meeting of all stakeholders be held under the aegis of AFC to discuss the road map for the growth of Indian football. The AFC General Secretary readily accepted the suggestion and proposed the meeting be organized in Kuala Lumpur on June 7. But according to me, the concept of introducing the newly proposed Super Cup could just be a suicidal step for the future of Indian football. To satisfy the newly demanded third AFC slot from India, I won’t mind if the AIFF decides to allow two I-League clubs for the AFC slot and one from ISL. But creating a ‘contest’ between a club league a city-based franchise league might just be a calamity.
As per my suggestions, there should not be any “contest” between the two leagues. The idea of Super Cup should not exist as well. I would like to request The AIFF to run both the leagues separately. Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Aizawl FC are fan based football clubs, they have a different fan base. The franchise-based ISL should be a different emotion altogether. The East Bengal, Mohun Bagan or Mohammedan Sporting fans can never change their choices of support, as that support comes from a different legacy. The AIFF should respect that and allow them root for their pride. ISL franchises are city based rivals and the pride and emotion for the respective cities are different. People back their cities with a different pride and there should not be any barrier by forcing the fans to choose either East Bengal-Mohun Bagan or Atletico De Kolkata ; FC Pune City or DSK Shivajians. If that happens, both the leagues can co-exist and the fans won’t find themselves in a fix to choose their favourite team as well. Both the leagues will have no dearth of popularity as well.
At the same time, I would like to request The AIFF to focus on keeping a parity in terms of the broadcasting qualities as well. The I-League needs a lot of improvement in terms of the telecast and that has been evident. The ISL and I-League both should get proper and equal promotions and with a transparent message to show the purpose of running the two leagues simultaneously, which I have mentioned earlier.
There might be a concern for the clubs that the financially strong outfits will be the favourites to sign the top players of Indian football. But that’s a common problem in parts of the globe. Big money spenders are everywhere and it’s not possible to stop that. And I strongly believe with proper promotion & telecast clubs will be much better position to sign the big names in due course of time. The count for the registered Indian footballers on senior level, which is now roughly around four hundred only, can increase up to thousand or more if there are two parallel leagues and at the end of the day, it will be Indian football who would be benefited from this.
Indian football would be graced if there is no conflict between ISL and I-League. Let I-League be the no.1 league in India and ISL be the city-based franchise league. The AIFF has of late taken some really praise-worthy initiatives and I would be hoping they would make a sensible move this time around as well.