Indian Football: Why we need the IMG-Reliance league to happen

There has been a lot of debate and discussion on the recently announced franchise based football league by IMG-Reliance in India. While the IPFCA has been quick to oppose it and announce its own tournament, some noted former footballers have also spoken against the league. The IPFCA and other critics have come down heavily on the proposed league terming it as detrimental for Indian football’s development and suggested various other things like investing in the youth development, better infrastructure etc. as better utilization of resources. What is ironical is that they themselves have announced a league to be organized during the same period. The logical conclusion that can be derived out of it is that the IPFCA is opposing the league purely because a professionally managed and well marketed league will be a threat to their existence.

The critics of the league have been highlighting the adverse effects it will have on the I-League. Well, to be honest, I-League never really took off. It is not something that is going to change Indian football drastically anytime soon. In fact, it is very much a part of the problem. There is no professionalism in the way it is being conducted. Most of the clubs don’t even have a stadium or a proper training ground. Most of the matches are played to empty stadiums with no emotional connect with a fan following in the first place.

These aspects are the foundations of a league and here they are so flawed that there have been numerous failed attempts to revive it by commercializing, marketing and repackaging it. Creation of the NFL, changing it to I-League and glamourizing it by bringing cheerleaders and broadcasting it on Zee Sports were all fruitless because of a lack of involvement of a dedicated fan following. There is hardly any reason for a fan to have an emotional connect and passion with most of the clubs.

India is a country of amazing diversity of cultures and more often than not, this fact has been exploited for negative causes. For a change, we have this opportunity of constructively using it for the benefit of football. If that emotional connect is there, the quality of the game takes secondary importance. Something reinforced by the following the Kolkata derby gets or even the success of the smaller leagues in South East Asian countries.

Now, talking about the feasibility of the IMG-Reliance league, one needs to see the age group football matches to notice something. Ironically, Subroto cup or the National u-17, u-14 teams play a much better game tactically and technically! I can just make a wild guess that a lot of the youngsters stop playing football and start pursuing better avenues professionally or maybe they stop developing due to lack of a better platform. More importantly, what it means is that we could actually get to see a decent quality of football where some good youngsters will get to rub shoulders with a host of international superstars.

IMG-Reliance needs to hold firm in view of all the resistance.

Football is already a very popular sport in India. It’s just that in the absence of a professionally managed and well marketed league, all the traffic gets diverted to the European Leagues without benefiting the domestic football at all. This is not to say that the league will challenge the European leagues for viewers but at least it’ll garner the initial attention from a good number of people already used to watching and passionately following a lot of football. Thanks to IPL, a good number of domestic cricketers have the visibility and hence the marketability whereas earlier only around 20 odd players at a time had any marketability. In football, it’s even worse! Even the national team members don’t command any significant following!

Of course, we also need a lot of initiatives at the grassroots i.e. World class academies for the youth, easy access to good grounds, good coaches, good referees. But all these requirements will be complimented rather than compromised by a good league. Children start to play football at a young age, go to good academies , get coaching through the best methodologies and go on to play in a popular league where they have the opportunity to become stars.

A lot of European clubs are venturing into India and starting youth academies. AIFF has started to give a lot of importance to the coaches training too. The hosting of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017 will be a big boost in ensuring world class infrastructure in many cities. Some of the clubs are fundamentally strong and can hold firm even in view of the changes. e.g. The Kolkata giants, some Goan clubs, Lajong FC, Pune FC. These clubs have a good following and so can even contemplate participating in the IMG-Reliance league in some way.

The pros and cons(mostly pros!) of such an initiative can be debated endlessly but what we need to realize is that considering the present state of Indian football and the lack of professionalism and following that it embodies, this league can’t do much worse if not better. This very fact should be more than enough to let it go ahead at least as an experiment. Fingers crossed!