As the last of the journalists, who had arrived at a swanky Chennai hotel to cover Chennai City FC’s title celebrations, had trooped out of the room, one of the officials closed the door, shutting out all the joy and euphoria. Outside in the hallway, there was just desperation.
Gathered around, for an impromptu press briefing, were the owners or officials of five I-League clubs — Chennai City’s Rohit Ramesh, Minerva Punjab FC’s Ranjit Bajaj, Gokulam Kerala’s VC Praveen, Mohun Bagan’s Debasish Dutta and Aizawl FC’s Felpuia Royte. They had just returned from handing over a document to All India Football Federation secretary Kushal Das, who had retired to his room, and now wanted to share it with the world. The document contained the blueprint for something they called the ‘Indian Football League’, a joint 20-team tournament involving them and the 10 Indian Super League (ISL) clubs. This was their last stand. If, over the next few months, the various stakeholders of Indian football reject this plan, then most of these clubs would likely start the upcoming season playing in the second tier. A mass forced-relegation for some of the brightest spots to emerge in recent times on a fabric seemingly doomed to eternal dullness.
Minutes before their announcement, Das had stood in the very same spot and given a picture of what was to come next season. The ISL would likely be made the country’s top tier, he had said, adding that the federation always planned on that. Bid documents would be out for select cities, he said, and the clubs could always pick one and buy their way in. Many of the I-League club owners, who operated on budgets of four or five crore, would have laughed aloud at the thought of shelling out a participation fee to the tune of `15 crore.
Over the last four years, many of them had unleashed mini-revolutions in Indian football. Aizawl FC had shown how to bank on local talent and still emerge triumphant in a league where previously the formula was to buy out whoever had done well the season before. Minerva Punjab managed to convert their impressive success at the various age-group levels by spearheading their army of academy graduates with a striker from not Spain or Brazil, but Bhutan. And Chennai City, this year, brought in a coach with a long-term vision, scouted for foreigners themselves rather than buying into the claims of various agents and refined Aizawl’s philosophy of identifying and trusting local talent. Yet here they were, the men behind those three clubs, staring at the prospect of being reduced to second-class citizens with no hope of fighting their way back to the top table.
Unexpected revolution
When plans for the ISL were first announced, the argument that officials of IMG-Reliance made was that if the I-League clubs had kept their house in order, there would have been no takers for another league.
They had a point. The I-League, in 2013, was a regional tournament played out in a handful of cities. Of the 13 teams, eight were from either Goa or Kolkata. The entrants from the North-east — Shillong-based Lajong and Rangdajied — seemed destined for the bottom. A pocket had opened up in the south with Bengaluru making a corporate entry, but only the most of optimistic of experts would have predicted the magnitude of success they would go on to have. With the National League being played across five states on grounds that often had not a blade of grass on them, to little or no television coverage, the ISL, with eight teams across eight cities played on turfs that Indians had previously only seen on television screens, seemed like a breath of fresh air.
But then something happened. The I-League started evolving. Teams started coming in from the furthest corners of the country and brought with it, people who looked at running a football club in a different way. As the cash-rich ISL scooped up the biggest domestic names, I-League clubs were forced to look inwards. Perhaps that explains why the likes of Aizawl, Minerva and Chennai City — even Real Kashmir and NEROCA over the last couple of seasons — were able to achieve success despite having budgets dwarfed by the likes of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. This was a different ball game and it was the newer clubs who learnt the rules faster.
The result has been a vibrant, competitive league which has seen title races go down to the concluding day for four consecutive seasons. In Kolkata and Kerala this year, I-League teams have managed to rival, if not outright beat, their ISL counterparts in terms of attendance. The league’s organic growth, which saw the likes of NEROCA and Real Kashmir coming in, looks set to continue with teams from Ahmedabad and Hyderabad among the frontrunners in the second division this year.
“You have to admit that ISL has changed the football culture in the country. The game became professional, we got better infrastructure and it started getting broadcast properly,” says former India captain Raman Vijayan. “But at the same time, you cannot ignore the I-League. They are the ones producing the players that go to ISL. I don’t know if ISL has the better players — I think (Chennai City striker) Pedro Manzi is the best forward playing in the country, better than FC Goa’s Ferran Corominas and that Jobby Justin should have been in the national team. Last year, East Bengal made the final of the Super Cup and this year Kerala Blasters lost to Indian Arrows. So, I don’t think the ISL is better due to having better footballers. One way to find out is to merge the two leagues together.”
Vijayan knows what side he is on in the debate that will engulf Indian football over the coming months. Merge it and create a joint league. That is perhaps the solution which will have the most subscribers. Yet, at the moment, it remains the unlikelier of outcomes.
Difficult to sustain
“You have to understand that if we just merge everything and create a 20-club league, there will be huge financial implications,” Das had said on the sidelines of Chennai City’s victory party. “As it is, it is difficult to find a sustainable model for football. If we just merge, without any planning, it will create huge issues with the clubs, our marketing partners, the broadcasters and the sponsors.”
The latter of those arguments is something that is echoed by Delhi Dynamos director Rohan Sharma. “If there is a 20-team league, would anyone want to broadcast those 380 matches, considering the Indian sporting scene has so many other events?” he asks. “This is not cricket.”
Holes are bound to appear in the ‘Indian Football League’ blueprint too with many of its assumptions deemed optimistic by those on the other side. Plans currently assume that the league would net an overall sponsorship of at least `320 crores (a little over twice what the ISL currently gets). This sum is what holds this utopian world, of clubs making smaller losses, second division outfits getting a share of the central pool, AIFF going home with a healthy amount and relegated teams getting parachute payments, together. However, not everyone is convinced. “As someone who has to struggle to get sponsorship for his team, I don’t think an increase in matches would necessarily lead to an increase in sponsorship,” says Sharma.
Das does offer some hope for the future when he says that ultimately, the AIFF’s aim is to have a top tier that runs for eight months with teams getting relegated and promoted. ISL’s contractual obligations with their clubs (and indeed, AIFF’s agreement with IMG-Reliance) runs out in five years. But that may be too long a wait for at least some of the I-League clubs.
“There is no point,” says Minerva’s Ranjit Bajaj when asked about future after a forcible relegation and the prospect of not having promotion for some time. “My club will die. And I know at least 3-4 I-League clubs who will close down along with me.” If that does happen, they will join a list that already includes names like Dempo, Sporting Clube, Pune FC and Mumbai FC, all of whom are either not operational or limited to their respective state leagues.
The revolution may have been glorious but the counter-revolution promises to be a firing squad by dawn and an unmarked grave.
Why a merger should happen
Why it probably won’t
Springboard
Many Indian youngsters have made a name for themselves plying their trade in the I-League
The I-League has started producing players from different parts of the country instead of just one or two pockets. It has played a part in expanding India’s talent pool. In terms of competition too, this league has provided excitement, with the title fight going to the last day on several occasions.
The ISL owes most of its Indian players to the I-League clubs, who have done the hard work of scouting talent and providing them a platform to draw attention. Not acknowledged for playing this role, the I-League has effectively been the breeding ground of talent.