What ails Kerala's club football?

Kerala is once again in danger of falling off India’s football map. Its sole representative in India’s premier domestic tournament, the I-League, Chirag United Kerala, is floundering in the drop zone as the second leg progresses. It will require a major transformation in fortunes for the club to avoid relegation.

Viva Kerala, as Chirag United Kerala were formerly called, have been in and out of the I-League after they first qualified in 2007 and have had to fight tooth and nail to stay in the premier division after they got back again. Should the unthinkable happen this season, ‘God’s own country’ will once again no angels in the top flight.

A few years earlier, Kerala’s other two representatives, the much heralded FC Kochin (since extinct) and minnows State Bank of Travancore had also bowed out.

On the other hand, Goa and West Bengal (inclusive of the football federation’s own development team, Pailan Arrows) are flourishing with four teams each in the current tournament. Maharashtra has three while a club each from Meghalaya, Karnataka and Kerala completes the current line-up.

The key question is: why can’t a prosperous state with a rich football legacy – Kerala has won the Santosh Trophy five times in 12 final appearances, the same as Goa — raise a marquee club team to keep the Malayali flag flying, something that Bengal and Goa have perfected with experience, funds and initiative? Even Punjab and Maharashtra, courtesy JCT Mills and Mahindra United, have managed to win the top division, so why can’t Kerala?

Over the decades, only two Kerala clubs have made a splash on the national stage — star-studded Kerala Police, who lifted the Fed Cup twice in 1990, and 1991, and FC Kochin, winners of the Durand Cup on debut in 1997.

Looking at the situation now, it is difficult to imagine that any Kerala team will ever scale such commanding heights in the near future. Five ‘Malayali’ teams took part in the I-League qualifiers last season — Eagles FC, Josco FC, Golden Threads FC (all Kochi based), Malabar United (registered in Kochi but based in Kozhikode) and Chandni FC (Kozhikode). None made the cut.

Most of these new entities are sponsored by small but rich businessmen with big ambitions. Josco owner Tony Jose, a jewelry magnate, is planning a state-of-the-art soccer city in Kakkanad. Chandni (sponsored by Mumbai-origin businessman Suresh Chand) also have ‘academic’ plans. Golden Threads, promoted by yarn merchant S S Naushad and Malabar United’s NRI benefactors have ideas of their own.

Eagles, managed by Ziqitza Sports Management, looks promising with powerful backers, including the scions of a football patriarch-cum-real estate tycoon, a prominent Union minister and son-in-law of a former Chief Justice of India. But will these big shots invest enough capital to help their squad compete on equal terms with the big boys of Indian football? How the Alemao family manages to wrestle up the ample funds year after year to keep Churchill Brothers in title contention is a lesson Kerala football promoters could well learn. Kerala’s football patrons don’t either have deep pockets or the same zest for the beautiful game.

Ironically, Viva Kerala (promoted by a clutch of Kochi merchants) were bailed out this season by the Kolkata-based Chirag Computers (R P Group) even as ‘Musli Power’ (Kunnath Pharma), cut their links with the home club after just a year’s involvement and big talk.

Middling Kolkata companies like the multi-business Prayag group (who tied up with United after Chirag left) and the Pailan educational conglomerate (sponsors of Indian Arrows) have shown that there is no dearth of sponsorship interest in Indian football.

Three Kerala teams are now in the fray in the upcoming second division qualifiers – the Jo-Paul Ancheri-coached Eagles, Golden Threads and the Kozhikode-based Quartz FC.They will face stiff competition from established corporate clubs from elsewhere like the Vedanta-backed Sesa Goa, ONGC, Techno Aryan FC and private clubs like Mohammedan Sporting and Royal Wahingdoh of Meghalaya, whose amazing run in the last Federation Cup has earned them good corporate sponsorship returns.

Commenting on the moribund Kerala situation, Babu Mather, sports writer and football official once associated with FC Kochin and Viva Kerala, said: “There are no big companies in Kerala which can afford to spend Rs 3-5 crores on football. Spectator attendance is also thinning down everywhere. There is young talent aplenty in Kerala. But by the time they make it to the state and Div 2 levels, wealthy clubs from Goa and Kolkata swoop upon them. Then the Kerala clubs have to begin from scratch again.”

Kochi-based Malayala Manorama special correspondent, Antony John, who has covered two FIFA World Cups, has a different take. “Basically the atmosphere in Kerala is not ideal for football,” he explained. “The failure of FC Kochin has sent out a big negative message to potential investors even though the passion for the game still exists.”

In a larger context Mather feels that football in India is in crisis mode and the problems are the same for all teams, from Kashmir to Kerala: “Financially, football is not viable in India. No club here is breaking even. Debt accumulates every year.” He ascribes the main reason for this state of affairs to the “weak marketing policy” and the “lacklustre management” of the All India Football Federation whose marketing agents too are finding it difficult to rope in sponsors for the I-League.

If a new team from Kerala does indeed qualify for the I-League it will re-energise the game in the southern backwaters, just as Shillong-Lajong’s entry into the big league has ignited the football faithful in the entire North-East.

Kerala deserves a place at the high table of Indian football. But they must earn it and then be able to keep it – in style! Is ‘God’s own country up to the challenge? Any takers or any suggestions?