Why we need ISL ?

by Shaon Roy February 3, 2017

Both Japan and India started their journey towards professional football around the same time, in the early and mid 90’s respectively. 1993 for Japan and 1996 for India to be precise. Before the inception of J-League, the top most football league in Japan was known as Japan Soccer League (JSL) which mostly consisted of amateur and semi-professional club and then to give a professional structure to Japan football, J-League was introduced. We all are aware now, what a success this J-League has become.
In 1996 , Indian Football Federation top bosses launched the National Football league which was modelled similar to the J-League and the aim of the NFL too was to give India a proper footballing shape. Before the NFL , we only had 3-4 months leagues/tournaments , such as IFA Shield , Durand Cup , Calcutta Football league ,etc.
After almost two decades , you yourself judge where the two league stands compared to each other.
If I start pointing out all the wrong things about I-League it will take me at least 3 different articles to complete the whole part but sadly I am only being paid for one article. So here it goes:

• Unprofessional Attitude :
  On 10th December 2004, negligency on part of AIFF and Karnataka State Football Association (KSFA) costed a promising footballer his life. Cristiano Júnior was then the highest paid footballer in the Indian League. During the Federation Cup final between Dempo and Mohun Bagan , Junior collided with then Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Subrata Pal at the 78th minute of the match and collapsed on the football field. Just before the impact , he placed the ball right towards the goal.
  After he fell down to the ground , many attempts to revive him were taken but all were in vain as there was no registered doctor present at the ground. He was then rushed to the Hosmat Hospital where he was declared ”brought dead”.
  Bangalore District Football Association only asked for physiotherapists and an ambulance but no doctors for the game. The reason they cited was that they could’nt afford 1000 Rupees per doctor.
  After Junior fell down on the ground , his Dempo teammates rushed to him , thinking it to be a celebration, the referee took almost 7 mins to allow the physio’s to enter the ground so that they can have a look at Junior. As physiotherapists are not allowed to enter the field without referee’s consent , therefore ,they were waiting for his approval.
  The Brazillian forward was rushed to Hosmat hospital which is two km away from the stadium (Being a rush hour , the traffic was heavy too) and not to the nearby Mallya hospital has drawn some severe criticism and speculation. Even the oxygen cylinder in the ambulance which was carrying him , was not working.
  Futher enquiry revealed that , neither Dempo SC nor Mohun Bagan had their own doctor present at the Ground. Infact , not a single team that took participation in that years Federation Cup had their own doctors.
  After this incident Subrata Pal was suspended for 2 Months.
  This incident perhaps was the biggest blot on the face of the I-League.Exposed its unprofessional , callous attitude infront of the whole footballing world.

• Poor Media Coverage and Sponsorship:
  During the 2011-12 and 2012-13 I-League, the league was a 14 team affair , as a result of which a total of 182 matches were played, out which only 75 matches were telecasted on Televisions. This is really apalling for the top tier league of a country with a population of 1.2 billion people . The population part was mentioned because the league somehow failed to create a market for itself even with such a huge population.
  Not just this, I-League didn’t even have a title sponsor untill the 2013-14 I-League when Airtel struck a deal with them. Then after the first season of ISL, Hero decided to sponsor I-league alongwith ISL.
  After this deal, a lot has improved for I-League, they even started handing out monetary prizes for the man of match. Though the money they offer seem to be very less compared to what ISL man of the matches gets but the fact that they are now getting prizes is praise-worthy.

• Zero Marketting:
  Apart from people of Kolkata , North East and Bengaluru not many are well informed about the premier league of Indian Football. Sadly , neither the clubs nor the federation took any initiative about it. The AIFF has long been criticized for hardly doing anything to promote the I-League, resulting poor Fan- following of I-League among masses.The league’s problems intensified after the emergence of the ISL, which adopted aggressive marketing practices to overshadow the I-League.
  As a Last ditch efforts by the Clubs, it was decided that all involved I-League clubs will contribute a notable amount of Money to a central pool. That money will be used to buy airtime on regional TV channels along with Ad spaces in the newspapers and digital media. This strategy was developed before the 2016 I-League. How much of a success it was , is still unknown.

• Confinement of the league to certain pockets of the Country :
  Though 2017 I-League will be an exception, but in all the previous editions of the league , most teams came from Goa and Kolkata.
  Take the example of 2012-13 I-League. In that years league, 4 teams were from Goa , 4 teams from Kolkata and 3 from Maharashtra. As a result of which other parts of India felt left out from the League. No representation at all from Southern and the Northern part of the country.
  Luckily , inclusion of teams like Bengaluru, Chennai City , Minerva Punjab and DSK over the year in the league, might make it enliven.

Basically , if you think about ISL , it is offering everything I-League failed to do. Be it entertainment , crowd filled stadiums, sponsor , money or professionalism. The only difference is I-League had 20 years to achieve all this and all it took ISL to accomplish this was 3 years.

It’s high time we embrace the change; at least for the betterment of Indian Football.