Khuri Irani is being absolutely massacred on twitter.. These are desperate times for FSDL.. Almost every sort of paid promotions, influencers, reports are getting drowned in a sea of objections
Khuri Irani is being absolutely massacred on twitter
@debarghya89 no my friend that hardly matters, they(or FSDL) know exactly what they are doing, basically its just to piss people off and divert it from main discussion plus they anyway gets reach due to negative publicity plus for a neutral person it looks like these girls are stating facts/numbers(I know those are dumb) and the ones who are attacking them are bad people(they are using hard language which goes against them anyways)
both these khuri and eisha acton hardly gets 5 retweets , now they easily got 20/10 rewteets easily so I would say job well done!!
@DEFENCE123, I am. And you should also be (as a real football fan), because the 'number one' league doesn't have the top two clubs in it. Isn't it arbitrary?
More than the Big Two, what is worry some is the painstakingly built football structure -- whatever we could afford and deserved -- is being pulled down. The top league would be a closed, insulated affair, not linked to the rest of the game. In a closed club, insane pumping in of money would sure make it hotbed of corruption. Football will be reduced to a realty show (a glimpse of which the Bengal audience have experienced recently, in Zee Bangla Football League).
This cannot be the ideal situation, and nothing to gloat about or relish.
@shanks_dehighliving is absolutely correct. Many people only remember what is trending on social media, what they see on their phone feed. So even if ACL spot is not given to ISL and I-League continues next season - casual fan will believe that I-league has closed down, ISL will play in ACL and so on.
Misinformation and social media is a dangerous cocktail where facts are buried.
Blue Pilgrims face ire over banner calling out AIFF's mishandling of Indian football
A VERBAL CONFRONTATION TOOK PLACE between fans and match organizing authorities at the EKA Arena, Ahmedabad, during India's match against North Korea at the Hero Intercontinental Cup.
Blue Pilgrims, a consortium of fans that follows the Indian national team around the world, drew the ire of organizers over a banner that they had brought into the stadium that expressed displeasure over forceful relegation of top flight clubs by AIFF and their commercial partners FSDL.
The banner simply said, "Football doesn't matter. Money does?" But even before it was unfurled, multiple officials wearing badges tried to have it removed from the stadium.
According to a Blue Pilgrims member, two people from the organizing staff approached them, asking them not to display the banner. When the fans refused, the staff allegedly spoke to them in a rude manner, and said they could be banned from future matches for this.
Afterwards, when the banner was unfurled, some of the security staff came up to the section where it was and tried to have it removed. The fans refused to budge, asking them to tell them why they should remove it. The reason given to them was "breaking stadium rules" but when they asked which stadium rule was broken by the banner, which was not abusive to anyone and simply registered a question that's pertinent to the current reality of Indian football, they were unable to come up with a satisfactory answer.
Later, more officials approached the fans, repeating their demand that the banner should be removed. The fans refused. Heated words were exchanged, and the fans allege that an official threatened to break their phones, which the fans were using to document the incident.
A source close to the situation denied this allegation to TFG, and claimed that it was the fans who had spoken rudely to the officials and even threatened them. A member of the Blue Pilgrims who was present during the incident denied that claim.
The Blue Pilgrims have had a long co-operative relationship with AIFF. The Federation has often encouraged the group, and the Pilgrims, in return, have always been there to cheer for the national team, be it home or away. Even as India succumbed to a 2-5 defeat to North Korea, the Blue Pilgrims stood on their feet for 90 minutes and supported the Blue Tigers with their chants and slogans. But this undesirable incident over just one banner of that expressed the genuine concern of the fans speaks of a potential breakdown of trust between AIFF and the Indian football fans; symptomatic of the air of mistrust prevalent between the Federation, their commercial partners FSDL and the independent clubs of this country.
The Indian national team will play their third and possibly last match in the tournament against Syria on Tuesday, 16th July. It's yet to be seen whether the Blue Pilgrims will once again bring in any such banner, and whether the organizers will react poorly again to fans speaking their mind on the sport they love and support.
Right now, Indian football is witnessing a bloody fight between a few disgruntled fans and clubs and the all-conquering private body that will monopolise the sport unless large-scale action is taken. It seems that under no circumstance will the AIFF ever relent to the I-League clubs, as was obvious by their statement on July 9th stating that the ISL has been the feeder league for the national team and should be credited for India’s performances as an international team over the recent years. If anything, that statement should be an absolutely clear indication that there is little or no scope for the I-League to survive in the long run, and for as long as it does exist it will continue to receive abject step-motherly treatment in one form or the other.
Conclusion: Is the AIFF right in its assessment of the ISL’s impact?
Absolutely not.
Since the advent of the ISL, the AIFF has tried to game the FIFA Ranking system to depict a picture of improvement in the national team’s football. There has been the odd victory every now and then, but most of them have been thanks to the sheer brilliance of one man, Sunil Chhetri. Under Stephen Constantine, the AIFF got away with absolutely biased selections, repeatedly choosing players with lower ceiling or poor form from the ISL and not selecting deserving candidates from the I-League. We saw the flaws of such bias in the Asian Cup, where lack of goalscoring forwards and good midfielders cost them a spot in the knockout stages. Despite the win over Thailand, our style and tactics were out of tune with the Asian footballing powers.
Under Igor Stimac, the same story has continued. The loss to Curacao in the Kings’ Cup and the damning defeat to Tajikistan (currently ranked 120, 19 places behind India) the other day in the Intercontinental Cup highlight the severe gulf in class between the Blue Tigers and their counterparts. In fact, following the loss, two relevant statistics came up that demonstrate the lack of game-time in the ISL for Indian forwards and defenders alike, and how this continuous façade is interrupting the growth of the players in the country:
i.
Apart from Chhetri, this is the goals and assists count of the other Indian forwards in the ISL. With less than 20 appearances to their name and almost no noteworthy goal count to speak of, how do they keep being a part of the national team setup?
On the other hand, despite scoring nine goals for East Bengal last season, Joby Justin was not a part of either the Asian Cup or the Kings’ Cup squad and was finally chosen for the Intercontinental Cup after he had transferred to ATK, an ISL outfit. How is merit not the base of selection in the national team?
ii. Another statistic that went viral after the Tajikistan game was the fact that Indian defenders chosen for the Intercontinental Cup, only Sandesh Jhinghan had over 1,000 minutes of playing experience during the season. The backline looks as penetrable as ever, especially against faster opponents which would explain why they conceded four goals in the second half against Tajikistan.
Credits: Twitter/ KalPanthu
No wonder Anas Edathodika had to be brought back from retirement. The lack of planning and preparation is appalling and is in such sharp contrast to Mr. Patel’s vision of Indian competing in a World Cup in 2026.
Author’s take
Facts do not lie and facts say that Indian football team’s ranking had gone down to 173 in March 2015 because the team had played only one game in the 12 months preceding it. This was when the ISL had already begun. Facts also say that until season 5, the ISL did not even stop during an international break, which begs the question as to how and when did it ever prioritize the national team over itself?
At the end of the day, no one can deny that ISL has injected glamour and might have some long-term benefits. However, five years is too short a term to measure its impact, if any. Moreover, the relentless propaganda( through the Media and paid Twitter bots) of it developing players for the national team, giving them better opportunities and thus justifying its need to be the top-tier league is a false one.
It was, and still is feasible to make a 20-team unified league with promotion and relegation, with the Indian football calendar looking something like this:
• Durand Cup/IFA Shield/State Leagues like the Calcutta Football league or the Goa Pro League etc.( in July/August) • The Unified League(September-April) • Super Cup( April/May) • Rovers Cup(May/June)
However, as things stand, such a calendar remains a dream for Indian football fans. It is most likely that the FSDL will have their way if they have not had it already and that the bubble around which the AIFF has wrapped itself is most likely to stay unscathed for a long, long while.
Comments
Sometimes I feel that JCT, Mahindra and some of the Goan clubs are certainly lucky that they do not have to undergo such daily charade
@debarghya89 no my friend that hardly matters, they(or FSDL) know exactly what they are doing, basically its just to piss people off and divert it from main discussion plus they anyway gets reach due to negative publicity
plus for a neutral person it looks like these girls are stating facts/numbers(I know those are dumb) and the ones who are attacking them are bad people(they are using hard language which goes against them anyways)
both these khuri and eisha acton hardly gets 5 retweets , now they easily got 20/10 rewteets easily so I would say job well done!!
Blue Pilgrims face ire over banner calling out AIFF's mishandling of Indian football
A VERBAL CONFRONTATION TOOK PLACE between fans and match organizing authorities at the EKA Arena, Ahmedabad, during India's match against North Korea at the Hero Intercontinental Cup.
Blue Pilgrims, a consortium of fans that follows the Indian national team around the world, drew the ire of organizers over a banner that they had brought into the stadium that expressed displeasure over forceful relegation of top flight clubs by AIFF and their commercial partners FSDL.
The banner simply said, "Football doesn't matter. Money does?" But even before it was unfurled, multiple officials wearing badges tried to have it removed from the stadium.
According to a Blue Pilgrims member, two people from the organizing staff approached them, asking them not to display the banner. When the fans refused, the staff allegedly spoke to them in a rude manner, and said they could be banned from future matches for this.
Afterwards, when the banner was unfurled, some of the security staff came up to the section where it was and tried to have it removed. The fans refused to budge, asking them to tell them why they should remove it. The reason given to them was "breaking stadium rules" but when they asked which stadium rule was broken by the banner, which was not abusive to anyone and simply registered a question that's pertinent to the current reality of Indian football, they were unable to come up with a satisfactory answer.
Later, more officials approached the fans, repeating their demand that the banner should be removed. The fans refused. Heated words were exchanged, and the fans allege that an official threatened to break their phones, which the fans were using to document the incident.
A source close to the situation denied this allegation to TFG, and claimed that it was the fans who had spoken rudely to the officials and even threatened them. A member of the Blue Pilgrims who was present during the incident denied that claim.
The Blue Pilgrims have had a long co-operative relationship with AIFF. The Federation has often encouraged the group, and the Pilgrims, in return, have always been there to cheer for the national team, be it home or away. Even as India succumbed to a 2-5 defeat to North Korea, the Blue Pilgrims stood on their feet for 90 minutes and supported the Blue Tigers with their chants and slogans. But this undesirable incident over just one banner of that expressed the genuine concern of the fans speaks of a potential breakdown of trust between AIFF and the Indian football fans; symptomatic of the air of mistrust prevalent between the Federation, their commercial partners FSDL and the independent clubs of this country.
The Indian national team will play their third and possibly last match in the tournament against Syria on Tuesday, 16th July. It's yet to be seen whether the Blue Pilgrims will once again bring in any such banner, and whether the organizers will react poorly again to fans speaking their mind on the sport they love and support.
https://thefangarage.com/articles/16879-blue-pilgrims-face-ire-over-banner-calling-out-aiffs-mishandling-of-indian-football
So where do we stand now?
Right now, Indian football is witnessing a bloody fight between a few disgruntled fans and clubs and the all-conquering private body that will monopolise the sport unless large-scale action is taken. It seems that under no circumstance will the AIFF ever relent to the I-League clubs, as was obvious by their statement on July 9th stating that the ISL has been the feeder league for the national team and should be credited for India’s performances as an international team over the recent years. If anything, that statement should be an absolutely clear indication that there is little or no scope for the I-League to survive in the long run, and for as long as it does exist it will continue to receive abject step-motherly treatment in one form or the other.
Conclusion: Is the AIFF right in its assessment of the ISL’s impact?
Absolutely not.
Since the advent of the ISL, the AIFF has tried to game the FIFA Ranking system to depict a picture of improvement in the national team’s football. There has been the odd victory every now and then, but most of them have been thanks to the sheer brilliance of one man, Sunil Chhetri. Under Stephen Constantine, the AIFF got away with absolutely biased selections, repeatedly choosing players with lower ceiling or poor form from the ISL and not selecting deserving candidates from the I-League. We saw the flaws of such bias in the Asian Cup, where lack of goalscoring forwards and good midfielders cost them a spot in the knockout stages. Despite the win over Thailand, our style and tactics were out of tune with the Asian footballing powers.
Under Igor Stimac, the same story has continued. The loss to Curacao in the Kings’ Cup and the damning defeat to Tajikistan (currently ranked 120, 19 places behind India) the other day in the Intercontinental Cup highlight the severe gulf in class between the Blue Tigers and their counterparts. In fact, following the loss, two relevant statistics came up that demonstrate the lack of game-time in the ISL for Indian forwards and defenders alike, and how this continuous façade is interrupting the growth of the players in the country:
i.
Apart from Chhetri, this is the goals and assists count of the other Indian forwards in the ISL. With less than 20 appearances to their name and almost no noteworthy goal count to speak of, how do they keep being a part of the national team setup?
On the other hand, despite scoring nine goals for East Bengal last season, Joby Justin was not a part of either the Asian Cup or the Kings’ Cup squad and was finally chosen for the Intercontinental Cup after he had transferred to ATK, an ISL outfit. How is merit not the base of selection in the national team?
ii. Another statistic that went viral after the Tajikistan game was the fact that Indian defenders chosen for the Intercontinental Cup, only Sandesh Jhinghan had over 1,000 minutes of playing experience during the season. The backline looks as penetrable as ever, especially against faster opponents which would explain why they conceded four goals in the second half against Tajikistan.
No wonder Anas Edathodika had to be brought back from retirement.
The lack of planning and preparation is appalling and is in such sharp contrast to Mr. Patel’s vision of Indian competing in a World Cup in 2026.
Author’s take
Facts do not lie and facts say that Indian football team’s ranking had gone down to 173 in March 2015 because the team had played only one game in the 12 months preceding it. This was when the ISL had already begun. Facts also say that until season 5, the ISL did not even stop during an international break, which begs the question as to how and when did it ever prioritize the national team over itself?
At the end of the day, no one can deny that ISL has injected glamour and might have some long-term benefits. However, five years is too short a term to measure its impact, if any. Moreover, the relentless propaganda( through the Media and paid Twitter bots) of it developing players for the national team, giving them better opportunities and thus justifying its need to be the top-tier league is a false one.
It was, and still is feasible to make a 20-team unified league with promotion and relegation, with the Indian football calendar looking something like this:
• Durand Cup/IFA Shield/State Leagues like the Calcutta Football league or the Goa Pro League etc.( in July/August)
• The Unified League(September-April)
• Super Cup( April/May)
• Rovers Cup(May/June)
However, as things stand, such a calendar remains a dream for Indian football fans. It is most likely that the FSDL will have their way if they have not had it already and that the bubble around which the AIFF has wrapped itself is most likely to stay unscathed for a long, long while.