Why can't the I-league replicate EPL/La Liga?

Apart from the Goan, Eastern and a few parts of Southern India, I don’t think we have a serious fan following of Domestic competitions as far as Football is concerned. The famous Kolkatan Derby between Mohan Bagan and East Bengal catches the eye of many Football enthusiasts in the country. You should be at salt lake stadium to witness the enormity of this encounter, it is more exciting than the Argentina and Venezuela match which happened recently, you can safely say the level of noise and passion is on the lines of the Milan derby at San Siro, in the Seria A. The IFA shield and Durand cup are one of the oldest soccer tournament in the world, in spite of this, I have not seen any excitement in the domestic matches apart from those played in Kolkata.

To an extent I blame the print media, as the main culprit. In any newspaper there are about 2-3 pages dedicated to sports, 90% of news and articles revolve around cricket and unnecessary statistics, 5% for EPL and La Liga, 4.9% for miscellaneous sporting events happening locally, at last the remaining 0.1% will cover the domestic tournament like IFA shield, Durand Cup, or I-league.

I have no grudge towards cricket and other sports but there should be a equal weightage given by the print media to all sporting activities, despite the Champions league T20 being a flop (not commercially though), a lot of columns are dedicated to cover this rather extravagant event. But this can be attributed to the fact that majority of our population, know more about cricket than Football.

As we know the country is obsessed with Bollywood and Cricket. Call them for a practice match or two, just like Kapil Dev had done for East Bengal, I am sure the print and electronic media will run the clippings from morning till evening, remember this should be done on regular interval, so that people are reminded that there is a sport called Football that still exists in India.

Like Venky’s are promoting their club, Blackburn Rovers in India, other Indian owners should follow suit and invest in our domestic clubs and organize friendlies with other European clubs. This will boost the viewership among those who follow EPL and La Liga regularly as they would be familiar with their style of play and the opportunity for the fans to watch their stars more closely. Moreover I urge clubs like Chelsea, Manchester united, Arsenal, Barcelona and Real Madrid to tour India just like they tour other Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong (China). Looking at the huge utapped fan base here in India, these European clubs will benefit more for such a fixture.

The matches in I-league should move their matches to late evenings and moreover the matches should take place only in the weekends, to accommodate the working class. Looking at the beginnings of EPL, the working/labor class at that time used to support the clubs, as it was a symbol of pride and unity for them and slowly this involved the upper class to invest their money in the local club. If this system is adopted in our country, we will be able to generate the interest that our domestic competition deserves.

Sporting brands such as Adidas, Nike, Reebok must push the sales of Indian club jerseys in their stores, even on the cost of Chelsea and Manchester United jersey’s. This will generate both money and a fan following for the local clubs.

I wish all all these measures are taken, in the coming days and we will see a different I-league in the future.

Edited by Leelaprasad