Indian Football News Updates

usaindia · March 2013

maybe 2014 season we can freeze or evaluate like AFC and preference would be given to teams showing growth in all areas other than player spending

Arsenalkid700 · March 2013

Honestly I think at this point we need to start "threatening" the clubs. I am happy that the clubs are finally seeing the horrible consequences to pre-mature promotion/relegation but I am still not certain that would be enough.

While IFN was down I decided to become a "watcher" on facebook and I saw the two main posts that had to do with this. I did not comment in any way or form. I just looked and nodded and made a few observations. One thing that was brought up though was the J.League model. How by stopping pro/rel and doing it again in 4 seasons would basically be the J.League model and eventually we would be the J.League. I disagree with this.

The J.League began in 1991 actually with the plan set by the Japanese Football Association in partnership with the original 10 clubs. A lot of investment was put into the J.League at that point and crowds were averaging 18,000 league-wide. Clubs were also changing from the clubs we currently have in India (Lack of community involvement and lack of youth development and more company promotion and PSU's) to clubs that named themselves after the community to get a stronger connection with the entire area, clubs that cared for youth development, and clubs that cared for creating a successful league that could compete with the best.

So basically, a lot of things went into the J.League in 1993 to make it what it is today. Was a lack of promotion/relegation a part of it? Yes, 100%, but it was not the driving force for the success of the J.League.

Arsenalkid700 · March 2013

Now based on that... I am confused. I am confused on where we will go. No one does.

Lets look at it like this. We have 12 clubs in the I-League (Not counting Air India or ONGC). 4 in Kolkata. 4 in Goa. 2 in Maharashtra. 1 in Sikkim. 1 in Shillong. 3 or more of these teams can not even pay the player salaries on time. 10 of these clubs can not even get a regular, paying attendance of 10,000. 3 can not even past 3,000-5,000 per game. Most clubs have publicly stated that they are failing to run the club well, having little expenses and financial strength to connect with the community, create a good base in youth development, and sometimes to even travel.

So how would promotion/relegation stop this? I don't think it can. South Korea and Japan had clubs that were able to reform and concentrate to become that top league. A-League adopted 5 clubs from the old NSL during the first season back in 2004-05 but these clubs were reformed already and/or new. The MLS started with 10 brand new teams.

There has never been a time in sports history where a sports league has not had promotion/relegation, has had the failings that the current I-League has, and survived to tell the story. I can name many sports leagues which had not been pro/rel or franchise and had/adopted failing clubs but all of them failed eventually.

And going back to the I-League. We also have the I-League 2nd Division and the Direct-entry clubs. At this moment it seems that we could be seeing the number of Kolkata clubs in I-League increase from the 2nd Division from more abominably ran clubs and then Mumbai Tigers and DSK coming in as direct-entry clubs and practically killing Pune FC and Mumbai FC off.

Is this really how the All India Football Federation, IMG-Reliance, and the I-League clubs think they can run a professionally ran sports league? I hope not.

Arsenalkid700 · March 2013

Now if I was running the show I would propose this:

Enough with the confusion and enough of the false promises. Have the 12 I-League clubs from this season meet in New Delhi and announce the end of the 2nd Division and promotion/relegation for 3 seasons. Also announce the arrival of 2 direct-entry clubs from New Delhi and Bangalore into the league to make it 14. It would only be these 14 clubs for 3 seasons.

Now, from the perspective of the AIFF and IMG-Reliance, do not listen to the promises of the I-League clubs and officials about how they will now spend the 3 seasons on youth development and all that. It is time to be hard on them. Announce a brand new "INDIA 2016" Criteria in which these 14 clubs need to follow 100% after 3 seasons. Whatever clubs that still fail the brand new criteria by 2016 are to be expelled from the league.

Now what will be in this criteria. I can create an entire 50 page list of what I would put in such a criteria but to put it in short terms it would have to do with youth development, community outreach, sponsorships, players brought into the league, stadiums, marketing, and other things like that (See the J.League membership criteria for an example).

Also for these 3 seasons, I would test out squad regulations. Salary caps, roster caps (25 players per team can be registered with the league), 4 foreigners per team with 1 being Asian, the option of having a marquee foreign signing (at the expense of 2 foreign slots), and youth regulations ("X" amount of players in your total squad must be a U23 player from "XX/XX/199X").

This is a way of being hard on the clubs. Right now they are saying that they deserve to be in the I-League. The Goan clubs are saying that they are vital to the development of Indian football... PROVE IT! If a club can not fulfill this criteria and adhere to it then they should not be in the I-League and if the owner is not happy with being expelled, well, you had 3 seasons (4 years) to comply with the law... you failed. Bye.

Joyptan · March 2013

"We will be playing on June 5 and June 11 and one more friendly, the date of which hasn’t been finalised yet. We will play all the three matches in Europe," - AIFF secretary Kushal Das

http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/136/india/2013/03/20/3839414/india-to-play-three-friendlies-in-europe-report