Will the I-league and ISL Merger be a boon to Indian football?
Words by: Shalet James Photographs from: Various Sources
Despite having a history of domestic football that go back to late 1800s, India is still not among the leading teams in Asia. Now standing at 101st in the currentFIFA World ranking, India under-17 team has also never participated at FIFAU-17 World Cup, until now as the country hosts its first Internationaltournament. Lack of proper grassroots infrastructure, professional training andawareness, are few of the major reasons that India is yet to play in the topleagues. Thus with a futuristic vision to take football to the next level, SunandoDhar, CEO of I-League shared his thoughts with FWD Business onhow to professionalise the game through club licensing criteria and make football the national sport.
You have been serving as a CEO of I- league since 2010, how has I – leaguedeveloped over the years?
There has been a lot of improvement and the quality of I-League has also beenenhanced in last three-four years. We started the club licensing in 2013, whichbrought a lot of change in the scenario of club football in India and a seachange in the overall attitude of the clubs. Initially, we had 11 teams from 3states, West Bengal, Goa and Maharashtra and now we have 10 teams from 9states. 10 teams playing from 10 different stadiums which have led to a greatprogress.
A major drawback initially was that in spite of being called a national league, ILeague did not have a national feel to it. One of the best examplesof this strategy is the performance of Bangalore FC, who won the league twicein three years and performed brilliantly in Federation Cup and AFC cups.It’s not only the players that they have signed in or the coaches they have bought in, it is the commitment to the game fromthe technical officers and CEO everyone and their professional attitude which isthe reason for their achievements. When we started the licensing, only Pune FC passed in the first year andall the other clubs failed. Pune FC has been there since last 7 years and hasovertaken all other teams, which has made other teams put an effort to passthe next year. With audits happening, no undue payments being made,everything being recorded, the Teams have started working like a corporate firm.Field performances can differ but if you are strong as a unit you can overcome the adversities.
With Gokulam FC and other football clubs coming up, do you think that they can get into country’s Premier League competition?
I held a workshop for football club owners on the licensing criteria, if they followthe guidelines then the clubs can easily enter the National League. Financial stability, kind of infrastructure, audits, agreements, medical agreements for theclub, medical coverage of the player, couldn’t be a better textbook for any newclub coming into the system to follow the licensing criteria blindly. If ShillongLajong with limited commercial opportunities can survive then why not the clubsfrom Kerala where there are so many opportunities, I don’t think it’s very difficult, you should have right kind of planning and a passionate team.
Is the ISL and I-League merge a good news, how will it be beneficial?
If you look at world football there is one league one season which goes out for6 to 8 months. At the moment we have two leagues, ISL happens for 3 monthsand I-league goes out for 5 months with the federation cup not ideal, we need to have one calendar where the teams can play the league and then thecup starts from September goes out to May. This will help players get adequaterest between the matches, they don’t have to rush from one place to another.The kind of investments, we need to make in a leagueis huge and our intention is to have this model up and running very soon.
Major challenges you faced in popularising the game and your ultimate vision for I-League?
Financial constraints have been one of the crucial challenges along with teamsdropping out. We have started to plan U-13 Team this year, unfortunately, therehas been various teams dropping out from the I-league but I can say that therewill be new teams joining soon. My vision is to get the teams participate from allover India. The top league should have 14 to 16 teams and hopefully, thesesteams should participate in a tournament like the FA Cup in England which willgive an opportunity to the lower level teams to compete with the higher levelteams.
What do you think the Government should do to promote football?
Improve the infrastructure and give responsibility to the clubs to maintain it. Thegovernment should focus on new development and set aside funds to buildproper and world class stadium. China is building World Cup Stadiums every100 days. India should come up with similar plans to promote the game.
Digital Copy : https://goo.gl/mf7Yil ||https://goo.gl/IFfwjy