First and foremost, AIFF will never allow that. Media coverage is now of utmost importance to the AIFF clowns. They can't risk losing that. Remember the 'Bengal Premiere League Soccor' - modelled on the lines of MLS and IPL? Even the likes of Crespos, Cannavaros and Peter Reids agreed to come. And then what happened? Lack of funds, lack of venues and shutting down of the shop. I believe, if these type of leagues can be done with juniors, suppose a team of 11 will consist of 4 standard foreigners apart from a marquee, 4 u-23 players and 2 u-19 players, then it can be a win win situation. No one goes for Chennaiyan FC game to watch Khabra or Dhana; if you can bring someone like Elano you will get crowds.
I don't get you here. The Bengal Premier League Soccer was a dumb idea from the start and was never going to be successful. A proper Bengali football league can be created along the lines of what you see in Regional leagues in Australia much more easily and with less money. You can also have promotion/relegation between these leagues as their is not much to lose if a team is relegated whereas the risk is a lot greater nationally.
A club like Port Trust, Railways or George Telegraph will never attract crowds. They are office teams built on a minimum budget. They get sponsors only if they get to play against the so called big 3 clubs of Bengal. For a proper Bengal league, you will need professional clubs. If there's no proper financial backing, the club will never get to recover after being relegated. Here, you need to begin from ground zero with professional (may be a franchise) clubs. You need funds for that and IFA is already at a debt of 6 cr.
You actually bring up a good point there. I did not consider that at all. Perhaps we could start to develop a system like we have in the US with the Premier Development League and start state-based professional leagues with new franchises (8-10) who must meet certain, but not strict, requirements.
I feel West Bengal could do well with this. East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan can register for the league. Hell, even United SC could get in. Pretty much fills in 2-4 teams already. You don't need a marquee player rule but you can enforce other rules like a salary cap, how many foreign players on a team, overall players, and U23 players etc.
My only concern with this is that no matter what, a state league will not be glamorous. The ISL and other nation-wide tournaments will rely on the big sponsorships and what not... state leagues will need to rely on the local support and local sponsorships etc. I guess a good thing then is that you would know that most of the time hopefully people will invest in the league for the football rather than money and that there will be a community advantage in the local leagues.
Another thing that would be less than ideal is that not everyone will be fully-professional. A lot of state league players will have to be part-timers while players on clubs like East Bengal etc will probably be able to pay players full-time (at least that is how it would be).
These leagues are not meant to be competing with the ileague and ISL. Everyone is perhaps missing the point here. The whole idea is that the operating costs for participating teams would be low and even with local sponsorship and gate revenue they could survive. The idea is that even clubs outside the Big 4 would attract home crowds at their respective venues in the districts. This will spread the game better across the state, and could be magnet for new talent from nearby states to have competitive football for the full year (these states are atleast a decade away from being able to organize their own state leagues, for various reasons).
Agree 100%. The only reason I bought up the ISL and other leagues was because I think that there is a thought around the Indian football community that unless a league can be looked at as "glamorous" or "entertaining" with marquee players and the like, then it won't be successful. Ya, it won't be world-class and won't set the world alight and bring in eye balls from all across the globe but it can still be a success.
Look at the highlights from the best state league in Australia... the pitches at some of the stadiums are pretty bad, the grounds themselves barely have stands, not many fans in the matches but it still thrives and the players are not far off I-League level.
In the end, these state leagues should help bridge the gap in Indian football for players coming from amateur/youth to fully-professional. This level would be semi-pro/professional. This could also help create a proper FA Cup in the future.
Edit: BTW, a bit after the 5th minute of the video, a former I-League player finds the net.
Unless and until the concept of transfer fees is emerging strongly in India, I don't see that happening. Otherwise there's nothing in it for the clubs. With the crowd and proper media coverage, I doubt they will get a sponsor.
The composition of the state league could have been like this: Reserve teams of the big 2 + MSC + United SC (based at Kalyani) + 4 teams from 4 towns (say, Asansol, Durgapur, Siliguri and Kharagpur -- almost the venues for PLS, except Howrah). 3 foreigners, 1 mandatory from SAFF (to keep costs down). An eight team, six month league with home & away matches on weekend evenings: Local TV channels will just lap it up.
Even the district teams could have been incubated by IFA (in the form of providing seed money and management), and partnered by the municipalities (providing stadiums, sharing electricity costs, etc). Everybody is in a win-win situation.
I think State League is a very good idea, even if it means amateur.. Might even start age based league as well.
What most people here do not know is , while Football is played and followed religiously across the state, not many talents have been unearthed outside 100 kms radius of Kolkata. The only reason behind this is, even though there's loads of talents, there's no team to propel them forward and make them known from these regions.
And it is not always possible to target Kolkata by everyone..
Also , most of the cities like Asansol, Durgapur, Bardhaman (etc-these 3 I know certain), have their own leagues. There are local amateur clubs participating, (not much money involved though), and you will see good players atleast till the age of 18-19, during which time most of them obviously choose some other career. And its not only 1 single division league, but proabably most areas spread across 3-4 divisions.
There is every opportunity to trace talents from these parts. But tey have always been neglected because of 0 vision from our football administrators.
Believe me, A State wise league (doesn't have to be professional), can attract many local sponsors (even a small tournament in my locality attracts huge sponsorships).
Comments
Remember the 'Bengal Premiere League Soccor' - modelled on the lines of MLS and IPL? Even the likes of Crespos, Cannavaros and Peter Reids agreed to come. And then what happened? Lack of funds, lack of venues and shutting down of the shop.
I believe, if these type of leagues can be done with juniors, suppose a team of 11 will consist of 4 standard foreigners apart from a marquee, 4 u-23 players and 2 u-19 players, then it can be a win win situation. No one goes for Chennaiyan FC game to watch Khabra or Dhana; if you can bring someone like Elano you will get crowds.
Here, you need to begin from ground zero with professional (may be a franchise) clubs. You need funds for that and IFA is already at a debt of 6 cr.
Even the district teams could have been incubated by IFA (in the form of providing seed money and management), and partnered by the municipalities (providing stadiums, sharing electricity costs, etc). Everybody is in a win-win situation.
I think State League is a very good idea, even if it means amateur.. Might even start age based league as well.
What most people here do not know is , while Football is played and followed religiously across the state, not many talents have been unearthed outside 100 kms radius of Kolkata. The only reason behind this is, even though there's loads of talents, there's no team to propel them forward and make them known from these regions.
And it is not always possible to target Kolkata by everyone..
Also , most of the cities like Asansol, Durgapur, Bardhaman (etc-these 3 I know certain), have their own leagues. There are local amateur clubs participating, (not much money involved though), and you will see good players atleast till the age of 18-19, during which time most of them obviously choose some other career. And its not only 1 single division league, but proabably most areas spread across 3-4 divisions.
There is every opportunity to trace talents from these parts. But tey have always been neglected because of 0 vision from our football administrators.
Believe me, A State wise league (doesn't have to be professional), can attract many local sponsors (even a small tournament in my locality attracts huge sponsorships).