How many are aware of the fact that I-League has started?

The stage is set for the action to begin. Country’s premier football tournament, the I-League has started this weekend. Well, how many of us are aware of this fact. The fact is only certain pockets of the country are eagerly waiting for the mega event. Clubs like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, which boast of a huge fan base are always taken for granted, specially as their fans will always be behind their clubs.

Similarly, Goan Clubs like Dempo, Churchill Brothers, Salgaocar, and North-Eastern Club Shillong Lajong have passionate fan following. Debutants Rangdajied United, another club from Shillong, Mohammedan Sporting, gaining re-entry this season, too can expect a good fan following. But young clubs like Pune FC, Mumbai FC, another I-League debutants JSW’s Bengaluru FC are new into the I-League and building a fan base means reaching out to the local community.

Bringing fans into the stadium on match days is not a piece of cake. Even most professional clubs like Pune FC failed to witness a house-full match day in their home matches. Kolkata giants, being community clubs, representing two different socio-cultural community of undivided Bengal, are one of the greatest rivals in football world which immensely helped the spread of the game in the state.

But when you don’t have a rival club, you have to take the responsibility to reach out to a section of people you represent. No doubt, Pune FC is doing that great, even Bengaluru FC has been phenomenal in this aspect. But when we don’t have a rich football culture, we can’t expect fans to throng the stadium on weekends when youngsters will rather prefer a movie at the multiplexes.

Even if we are far behind in terms of our rankings and our quality of football, that can’t be a reason for empty stands. Many South-East Asian nations like Indonesia and Malaysia, who aren’t much better than India in terms of rankings, are way ahead in terms of the popularity of the game.

Whereas in India, Goa and Kolkata alone have eight out of 13 clubs in the I-League. Therefore, spreading the beautiful game across the length and breadth of our country is the need of the hour. But when we fail to achieve that, then we can at least hammer away at the footballing regions and start proper promotion and marketing of the game.

This can bring in new fans and in turn can also inspire other non-footballing regions to have their own club. When fans, eagerly waiting for months for the league to start, come to know a day before that Round 1 matches will not be telecast, all the passion generated suddenly dies out.

The only way is to rely on live updates by some passionate fans in various blogs and sites. When the governing body of the game in the country stresses on club licensing criteria to be met by the clubs, their own criteria, their own promises are in the dark. AIFF’s commercial partner, IMG-Reliance met representatives of all the clubs last month, promised them of marketing the league and telecasting 75 matches live.

A committee, which also included members from a few I-League clubs, was formed to execute the plan and fans were in seventh heaven. Just when the league was about to kick-off, news came that first round of matches won’t be aired as the contract with the broadcasting partners was signed at the last moment, leaving fans in a quandary. Promises of marketing the I-League were not kept and now it remains to be seen whether fans can catch the action live from next round.

When newbies Bengaluru FC can fill stands on the very first day in their footballing history by promoting themselves in various social networking media, why can’t old and established clubs do the same?

Big clubs, having millions of fans all around, can increase their fan base, while smaller clubs can start building for the same. The same goes for AIFF, by signing contracts on papers they can’t wash their hands. Clubs and the governing body must sit together and chalk out plans of popularising the game.

Streaming matches live, hosting pre and post-match shows, putting up hoardings at prime locations of host cities will definitely grab more eye balls for the league. Fantasy I-League launched recently is a welcome step. It must be noted that only fans can bring in more fans. Start with what you have and you’ll get more.