IMG-Reliance tournament: a death-knell for I-League?

Zico in 2005, from his time as Japan Head Coach. (Getty Images)

Is AIFF’s decision to introduce the IMG-Reliance tournament for new franchises a good thing, especially when the I-League itself is going through difficult times?

All over the world it’s the club culture (support) which is the mainstay of football leagues. Here in India, we are gradually heading towards professionalism by introducing club licensing. Clubs as separate entities is the right path towards professionalism wherein membership could be opened up and people in general can have a stake in it.

That’s one way to bring in the crowds for our I-league, as it is happening in Kolkata. With the introduction of IMG-Reliance tournament, it is possible that in due course, the I-League may be relegated to just another league and it could result in the clubs going the JCT/Mahindra way.

The need of the hour is to increase the prize money of 70 lakhs to 5 crore as suggested by Shri Churchill Alemao. This will help generate more interest in the league and the clubs too will not mind bringing in quality players from abroad if the prize money is substantial.

It is a well-known fact that the J-League in Japan became a huge success because they invested in the infrastructure and also roped in the legendary Zico, very popularly known as a white ‘Pele’, to attract the crowds during the initial stages way back in 1993. Zico was one of the founding advisors of J-League and had played for Kashima Antlers.

He was also used heavily in all forms of promotional material: billboards, commercials, video games and even featured on television shows, and utilised his marketability in a country where even those not familiar with football knew his name.

Zico then went on to lead the Japanese national team from 2002 to 2006 and won the Asian Cup qualifier and also led Japan to the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006.

Players like Gary Linekar, Michael Laudrup, Dunga, Hristro Stoichkov, Bebeto and others followed to make J-League one of the best in Asia and competitive enough to be compared with the best of the leagues in the world.

The IMG-Reliance tournament will no doubt be a success temporarily, given the huge investment likely to be done by the corporates/individual, something akin to IPL T20 cricket but may end up destroying the immense good that the clubs have done all these years.

In cricket there is neither club culture nor any club competition worth its salt, and so T20 IPL is not a threat to other competitions. Despite this, experts say that T20 cricket will destroy the other formats of the game in the years to come.

The AIFF, instead of organising the IMG-Reliance tournament, must concentrate on the task at hand to make the I-League more attractive by increasing the prize money, help the clubs to improve the infrastructure, make it more spectator friendly by having matches under floodlights and also telecast the matches live to reach out to all football lovers in the country.

In addition to that we need players like Didier Drogba and others, who are on the verge of retirement, to play in our I-league, which will bring the crowds to the stadiums and also motivate the youngsters in our country.

We need to follow the Japanese way (J-League) and not the IPL way to walk the road towards professionalism in football.