AIFF's East Bengal 'fans' behind Bagan ban?

How does it feel to attend a club’s training sessions when you still don’t know what lies ahead in the future? Every morning, probably, every Mohun Bagan player goes through this sinking feeling when the team descends at the club’s ground in the Maidan. Despite the club’s assurance that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) will look into their appeal to rescind the two-year ban, sources in the Federation say that nothing of that sort is going to happen. The I-League Core Committee will meet in Delhi on Wednesday, but it is unlikely that the Federation is going to reverse their decision on Bagan.

The ban on the club has hit the players. The boat has been rocked and Syed Rahim Nabi and company are struggling to find their feet. Even national team coach Wim Koevermans has expressed his dissatisfaction that India players in Bagan will miss a lot of games due to this ban. All these players will have to wait till next season before they could sign for any clubs, and that’s something which is bothering the Dutch coach.

There is another rumour which is being whispered in every nook and cranny of the Indian football fraternity. Most football lovers, and I bet they are not only Bagan fans, have a strong feeling that the AIFF was vindictive when they handed out the punishment to the century-old club on December 29, 2012.

AIFF is taking pleasure in saying that they have become professional by banning Bagan for two years. But most people aren’t aware that both Subroto Dutta (AIFF vice-president) and I-League CEO Sunando Dhar do not get along with the Bagan secretary Anjan Mitra and and club’s finance secretary, Debashish Dutta. Also, there are some officials inside the Football House who are anti-Bagan or, should I say, die-hard East Bengal fans.

Another federation official (he is a die-hard East Bengal fan) recently gloated during ONGC vs Sikkim United match in Delhi about AIFF’s ‘historic’ decision to ban the Calcutta club. He was even giving ‘technical advice’ about the loan of Bagan players for the January window. Now the question is, if the Federation was so concerned about Nabi and his Bagan teammates, then why did they suspend the club? They could have put a hefty fine on Bagan and those officials who took the team off from the field against East Bengal on December 9. Isn’t it true that some anti-Bagan officials in the Football House are sorting their personal differences with the green and maroon club?

There are very few quality and fan-based clubs exists in India today. Barring Bagan, East Bengal is the only other club which enjoys a huge support base in the country. Rest of the I-League teams are either new or corporate teams.

In such a scenario, I-League, which is being played in empty stadiums around the country, will be hit hard. The East Bengal-Bagan derbies were the only attractions of the League. By throwing out the Mariners from the competition for two years, the Federation has not only killed the game but only put a full stop on the game’s progress in the country.

Bagan, founded in 1889, won’t shut down and will slowly overcome this difficult phase. But I shudder to imagine what would have happened to a smaller club if they faced a similar ban.

Even Juventus, for their role in the infamous ‘Calciopoli’ scandal in 2006, was allowed to play, but in the Serie B. The Italian authorities sent out a strong message to other clubs and set an example for the future. But they kept in mind the interest of football and the fans by not putting a ban on the Italian club from playing the game.

All of us know how AIFF is being managed. In my previous columns, I had mentioned that introducing foreign coaches to Indian football cannot be the only solution to improve the system.

Let me give you a small example.

You may not have heard of one Mohammad Shamsuddin. But this gentleman received a ‘promotion’ to the AIFF Executive Committee at the last AGM. He has been the all-powerful Uttar Pradesh Football Sangh secretary for years and is known as Babubhai. Based in Varanasi, he is a meat exporter who has nothing to do with the game!

Need we say more about the people who run the game in our country?

Football, as we know, is being destroyed in India, courtesy the AIFF.

Unless good sense prevails, another great club may well be on the decline.