2013 Indian Football Year In Review: Top five lows

2. Clubs vs IMG-R deadlock

Indian football’s biggest controversy of 2013 was undoubtedly the deadlock between I-League clubs and AIFF’s commercial partners IMG-Reliance. Under the banner of the IPFCA (The Indian Professional Football Clubs Association), the clubs publicly opposed IMG-R’s proposed IPL-style football tournament and decided not to sign any IMG-R contracted player. That stand didn’t last long though as following a poor start in the I-League Mohammedan Sporting, Rangdajied United, Mumbai FC and most recently Dempo all loaned players from IMG-R and made a mockery of the IPFCA’s previous statements.

But the big losers from the whole saga were the players that are contracted with IMG-R including some of the country’s best talents as they were deprived of competitive football for months. That eventually made life difficult for national coach Koevermans while selecting his squad. Amid all the controversy though the proposed Indian Super League got a lot of publicity worldwide but unfortunately it got postponed to September 2014.