Indian Football: Observations on the Recent Trend of Salary Hike

Odafa Okalie became the highest paid player in Indian football history and thus sparked off an interesting trend

A recent trend has been observed in Indian football where footballers are offered exorbitant sums of money: more than one crore rupees for a season. The goal machine, Odafa Okolie, became the most expensive player in the history of Indian football after receiving an offer of almost two crore rupees for a season from Mohun Bagan. The charismatic midfielder, Beto, has received an offer of more than one crore rupees for a season from Churchill Brothers. Another goal machine, Ranty Martins, demands fee in the similar range, but his demand has been turned down by the Dempo officials. A number of football experts have praised this trend while others have criticized it. The objective of this article is to critically evaluate the probable impact of this trend in Indian football.

The popularity of any league depends on the competitive balance of that league. To ensure competitive balance, teams of equal strength should participate in the same division of the league. This will assure the uncertainty of outcome of the league which is important to maintain the interest of the fans. Therefore, the relative qualities of the participating teams should be taken into consideration while forming a league or any other competition.

The present trend of salary hike in Indian football clearly indicates the willingness of the cash- rich clubs to recruit prominent players to win titles. The other clubs, which are striving for sufficient funds, may not be able to attract eminent players and therefore they will be outperformed by the cash- rich clubs on almost every occasion. It may demolish the ‘uncertainty of outcome’ hypothesis and may act upon the competitive balance of the league. As a result of this, there can be a decline in viewership which may affect the revenue side of the league adversely and the long term viability of the league will be in danger. To avoid this situation, the concept of ‘salary cap’ may be introduced in Indian football to ensure that no player will be paid beyond a certain maximum limit.

A top football club of India has rejected the demand of a prominent foreign player of another club to prevent a possible revolt in the squad. The existing foreigners of the club may demand more money which the club may not be able to pay and it may create a negative impact on the performance of these foreign players. The other clubs should take a lesson from this incident.

Investing money in recruiting high- ranked players for winning competitions is an important activity of the clubs, but the other responsibilities of the clubs for the overall development of football in this country cannot be ignored. The clubs should also allocate funds for developing infrastructure, nurturing upcoming talents, recruiting professional managers, undertaking marketing initiatives, conducting fan developmental and community developmental initiatives etc. The football lovers of India can expect that the administrators of these football clubs will provide equal importance on the long term development of Indian football by investing in these areas.

It can be argued that this trend has been developed recently and it is too early to come to a conclusion. However, it should be remembered that the trait of an able administrator is to predict the probable impact of an event and to take necessary steps to avoid any unfavourable consequence. The football fans of India may expect that the administrators of Indian football will play a pro- active role in critically evaluating the recent trend of salary hike and will adopt necessary measures to prevent any adverse impact on Indian football.

(The author is a Lecturer, Naval Tata Centre of Excellence in Sports Management, Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management)

Posted by ankanb12