Baichung Bhutia takes Pro IMG-R stance, but did he say in public what people haven't said openly?

Ex-India captain Baichung Bhutia nowadays wears many hats as co-owner of United Sikkim FC, the president of the Football Players Association of India, running his own BB15 business, ambassador for different brands and now is in discussions on what role to take – as a player or an off-field role – with IMG-Reliance. Baichung Bhutia, besides Bollywood star John Abraham, was a guest player of the IMG-Reliance contracted players on Tuesday and they both spoke afterwards with the large media contingent present, who had come more to watch John in action with Indian professional footballers.

For Indian football though, Tuesday’s press conference wasn’t about a Bollywood star turning-up to train with its footballers, but rather the statements made by the former India captain Baichung Bhutia at that informal press conference.

Some will say Baichung made these controversial statements in front of an IMG-Reliance backdrop to strengthen his own position as he is trying to get himself attached to the IMG-R tournament, which made many after the statements went public go into overdrive, be it the federation, IMG-Reliance, the clubs and even some players. Many would say they went into damage control mode, that Baichung only said publicly what has been discussed behind closed doors or in private phone conversations over weeks and months with no results.

Baichung openly contradicted earlier statements made by other people within the Indian football fraternity, even official positions taken by a body like the I-League Professional Football Club Association, then together the clubs under the banner of the IPFCA are opposing the tournament and have even refused to loan players to the new tournament or take players contracted to it on loan, but Baichung said at the press conference that he knew of numerous clubs who were willing to deal with IMG-R on the players as their squads weren’t strong enough or marquee players through IMG-R were available on the transfer market.

Speaking as a club owner, Baichung said, “I own one of the I-league clubs and as an owner I can say it is good for Indian football and will benefit I-League as well, at some time or later. We need to be positive and everybody has to come together so that the tournament goes off well.”

But he also went on to say, “If you look at last 5-10 years, the way I-League has gone and the way Indian football has, it has not been able to make a big impact. So I think it is important that we have new investors and new teams, new people investing in the game.”

Clearly, Baichung put things regarding the I-League and its financial situation in perspective, which has been moving towards this slow death over the last few years, even before the talks of an IPL-style football tournament had started.

Further Baichung stated that some players had only signed for I-League clubs with the assurance that they would be released for the IMG-R tournament, which at the moment seems unlikely and unnecessary as IMG-R have nearly filled their quota of Indian players.

But Baichung not only contradicted the clubs, he also contradicted his successor as India captain Sunil Chhetri by stating, “I think, the new tournament is great for Indian football. Being the president of the players’ association, I have spoken to the players and they are looking forward to it. I think it will benefit players a lot. More than that, I think it is going to benefit Indian football.”

Earlier, Sunil Chhetri had said that players who have signed for the IMG-Reliance tournament had major doubts over their signing, some even saying it was a mistake, though Chhetri didn’t mention any names.

To sum it up, Baichung only said in the open what Indian football insiders have known for months; but still this has created a large outcry within Indian football then open, honest, straight and direct is a trait sadly missing in Indian football. Maybe the biggest problem which we have, then everyone seems to follow only their own agenda and not that of Indian football.