These should have been heady days for the I-League. Its cash-rich cousin, the Indian Super League (ISL), may be getting the eyeballs on television, but it’s the less glamorous I-League that has put India on the Asian football map.
Bengaluru FC reached the final of the AFC Cup — Asia’s second-tier competition — earlier this month, losing by a solitary goal to Iraq’s Al Quwa Al Jawiya.
But instead of building on that, the league finds itself in an utter mess. Sporting Clube de Goa and Salgaocar, two Goan clubs, have already pulled out of the forthcoming season, scheduled for January, in protest against the proposed restructuring of Indian football for 2017-18.
• Diego Forlan column on life in India: 'Life is hectic but I would recommend Indian Super League to other players'
A third Goan team, Dempo — the five-time national champions — may also follow suit, leaving the I-League with just six teams. At the heart of their discontent is a new structure that will not even have relegation from, or promotion to, the top tier.
The eight existing ISL teams, none of which have the sort of continental pedigree that Bengaluru have shown, will form the top division, with Bengaluru and one of the two Kolkata giants, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, likely to join them. The other will be forced to amalgamate with an existing ISL franchise.
As for the other I-League teams, there is little to look forward to. Without promotion to the top tier, it will be next to impossible to attract even promising young Indian players, let alone big-ticket sponsors. Stringent licensing norms that led to teams like Churchill Brothers being thrown out of the league — they could be reinstated given the current mess — have also discouraged new entrants, though three, FC Bardez (Goa), Minerva Academy (Punjab) and Chennai City FC, have been asked to resubmit bids for direct entry.
In the last decade, storied teams such as Jagatjit Cotton and Textile Football Club and Mahindra United have shut up shop because of the difficulty involved in running teams in a low-key competition like the I-League. Kerala, where the passion for football still endures, hasn’t had a team of note since FC Cochin in the 1990s.
There’s little doubt that Indian football needs one unified league to progress. But shutting the door on some famous old names to further the new franchise culture may not necessarily be the best way of going about it.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
