Why the ISL can inspire generations of footballing superstars in India

The European connection – Technical know-how from the best in the business

Atletico de Kolkata have close ties with Atletico Madrid and have immersed completely into the lesser known Madridistas’ footballing culture. Beyond all the pizzazz of their pre-season tour and parading at the Vicente Calderon though, lies a bond that ought to warm the cockles of any true-blue Indian football fan’s heart. `

Atletico de Kolkata being presented at the Vicente Calderon in Madrid, Spain.

As with Feyenoord with Delhi Dynamos and Fiorentina with FC Pune, Atletico will be providing top-notch technical support to players at their Indian affiliate. This is an important step as we have been floundering in obscurity for too long now, using out-dated strategies and conditioning regimes that always meant even the most gifted players wouldn’t stand a chance at even the most basic international levels.

The inputs of hardcore, no-nonsense professionals from countries like Spain, Holland and Italy will serve to bring about some radical changes in the way the game is played in India, and hopefully bring us up to speed with the rest of the world. An important aspect of this foreign technical support is the immense impact it will have on (the admirably compulsory) grassroots initiatives that each club will be undertaking in their city and their catchment areas.

True ‘grassroots’ programmes – Precursor to success

The AIFF Academies’ technical director Scott O’Donnel and member of the UEFA Grassroots Panel, Piet Hubers, recently kicked off the ISL’s first grassroots development programme for its clubs – including in it a three-day workshop for training the ISL clubs' appointed grassroots development officers in both the theoretical and practical aspects of different age group training and a bunch of 5-a-side,7-a-side and 9-a-side matches featuring over a hundred kids from schools across Kolkata.

Bend it like Beckham – Grassroots development is essential for the success of Indian Football

All eight teams have shown admirable vision and commitment in these, admittedly, early days and with the technical support of their European affiliates and the backing of FIFA’s and UEFA’s development programmes, the initiatives offer a glimmer of hope that India has finally found a way to tap into her immense resources and identify a new generation of sporting superstars who would rather kick a ball into a net than hit it out of the ground with a bat.

This comes with a fervent prayer though – a prayer that the initiatives truly aim at reaching the ‘grassroots’, unlike the courses that the big clubs have set up already in India. Barca’s FCBescola camps charge Rs. 13,500 for a five day training crash-course, Liverpool Academy’s annual courses are all yours at Rs. 3.5 Lakh for U-17s and Rs. 4.5 Lakhs for U-19s. Exchange programmes like Intersoccer Madrid come at a whopping Rs. 15.6 lakhs. This kind of cash can only be plumped for by the elite – no middle/lower class Indian family is even going to consider fees like this.

This situation must be well and truly tackled by the ISL – the urban areas may be where the viewership (and the corresponding European football fascination) lies but talent is generally much more widespread than economic success. The legends who have come out of the favelas of Rio and Sao Paulo and the rundown neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires and Rosengard lay as testament to the universal fact that the beautiful game is everyone’s to love and conquer

From the kid whose dad’s chauffeur drops him at games in GK-II in an Audi to the kid who has to sell soda bottles at the Thrissur Municipal Stadium to earn a living - everyone has it within themselves to become great. (For the un-initiated, the latter bit refers to the humble beginnings of I.M. Vijayan, one of India’s greatest ever footballers)

Football is the people’s game, let us not forget that.

ISL must learn from the MLS, not the IPL

The ISL must not make the cardinal sin of trying to emulate the wildly successful Indian Premier League. The money-spinning T20 bonanza is merely a delicious cherry on top of a wonderfully well-constructed multi-layer chocolate and vanilla cake. Cricket has an incredibly solid base in the country – whether it be through a spread of coaching centres or highly competitive professional tournaments which start right from school levels, and go on through the district and state levels. Brilliant youth teams and reliable A and B sides complement the truly remarkable successes of the senior team and provide a conveyor belt of talent that is the envy of the cricketing world.

Football has a long way to go to even come close to this level of infrastructural and competitive framework. Hence, going the IPL way, while commercially attractive, will not be the best thing for the future of the sport in the country.

The US team that did splendidly well at the World Cup earlier this year

Which is why the ISL should strive to emulate the USA’s Major League Soccer (MLS). Started in 1996 with 10 teams, the MLS now boasts 19 professional teams (which will be 21 next season) who are followed by numbers that have surpassed traditionally strong sports such as Basketball and Ice Hockey. The commercial success of the MLS is an encouraging sign that the game can earn profits in even the most supposedly inhospitable markets.

What is even more encouraging is the huge role the MLS has had in the success of the US men’s and women’s national teams in recent times. If India can get at least half as much out of the ISL as the USA has gotten out of the MLS, the league can be considered an unqualified success.

Make no mistake, there is a golden generation of superstars lying out there amongst India’s billions and the ISL may just provide the spark that unleashes them onto the unsuspecting footballing world.