CHENNAI: On Monday, fans of Jamshedpur FC as well as fans of Indian football took the streets to protest the owner's decision to wind down first team operations. A few hours earlier, the side's chairman, in a press conference, said any reversal would have to come from the top bosses.
The development is another hammer blow for Indian football, an entity which only knows bad news stories. "I think it's big setback," Bhaichung Bhutia, one of the greatest Indian players of all time, tells The New Indian Express. "They have featured in the Indian Super League (ISL) for almost 10 years. It's not just any team, it's owned by a big corporate. For them to be shut down is a big loss for Indian football. It will have a negative impact."
Bhutia, like others within the fraternity, can see the irony of a senior side shutting down first-team operations at a time when the Brazil national team is scheduled to play a game in Kolkata in the next international break. "I will say what I had said a few days earlier. Your house is in disarray and you are struggling to survive to run the family... and you are bringing a superstar to your son's wedding. It's very similar to that."
He says a general lack of a long-term vision and the uncertainty is continuing to hurt the game. "It's a big failure of the management and the federation as well. It's high time the government gets involved. The longer it takes, the damage is going to be so much more. The ranking is already 140 (138) and we might go down even further. We don't know when the I-League will happen, we don't know whether the women's league will happen, the grassroots programme is more or less zero. It's in a very bad state."
On the Brazil game itself, the 49-year-old has no problems. In fact, he says 'matches like these should happen' but he questions the timing. "The timing is what I'm worried about," he says. He also makes the point that members of the Indian team may themselves not feature in the game as they 'may be playing in the FIFA ASEAN Cup'. "Is this the right time to bring in Brazil? Clubs are shutting down operations, the structure/system is missing and the federation is not able to have a great vision and plan for football in terms of development... and India's first XI may not even play because of the FIFA ASEAN Cup is scheduled to happen at the same time. What are you trying to achieve?"
The ASEAN Cup, in its inaugural edition, sees India (an invited nation), facing hosts Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in the group stages in the same international window between September 21 and October 7. Brazil are scheduled to face India in that friendly on October 3 but if they do happen to the reach final of the ASEAN Cup, it will be on October 4.
Away from the friendly, though, Bhutia, whose academies and football schools continue to attract a lot of youngsters, wants a better tomorrow. "I think generally all football fans are very frustrated. We all want to see some change."