@ashindia: If AIFF had the money and will to do things, they would have done this with I- League a long time ago. These guys had no money to run the premier competition of India and you expect us to have proper development. Somehow, IMG came into scene and finally we can atleast have some money to run I - League properly.
Money has to be pumped in to generate money. Proper flow of income has to be there. If you dont invest, never expect things in return. Duration can't be extended initially. Everything has to be done slowly. suddenly if you have a 6 month league without any planning and fan base, you are in for big time trouble.
And who told you that ISL tourney is gonna change things overnight. IMG itself doesn't accept this. Read Andy Knee's interview about ISL and things will be more clear to you. Its just the rubbish media, so called EPL fans, and NOOBS to indian football who think this way. ISL is a big gamble for IMG. If things fall into place, there will be nothing like it indian football has ever seen. And it will only get better with each year passing on. But, if ISL fails, then along with it will perish thousands of hopes and our football will take another big blow, a big setback which may further pull us back by at least 10 years.
My question is how do you expect this league to be successful ? Do you really think these old foreign players add any quality ? In India people follow only follow the best. You, me and regular followers of Indian football will watch but what about EPL,LA LIGA crowd ? After watching James Rodriguez, Messi etc will they find likes of Fedrik, David James amusing ?
People are talking about gamble but we need to be realistic.All this confusion is definitely going to impact the National team's performance in upcoming WCQ and stunt Indian football's growth.
@ashindia: Ok. As you wish. Lets be realistic. Forget the WCQ. We are not in the race to the world cup for at least 15 years from now. And we can't get any worse than this. Lets just build block by block. ISL will be successful in a way. Money will flow in though TV. Ads will be sold. Revenue will be there from TV definitely. There biggest aim is to attract people to the stadium. And this is a challenge for them and they know it too. So, lets just wait and see. People always follow the best. I accept that. That's why a second division can never work here until a particular bond is created with the community. The list to discuss here is endless.
My view is that ISL has 70/30 chance of succeeding in attracting audience in first year.
@AshIndia I agree with you somewhat. I would agree fully if the marquees were guys like Andy Cole and such who are over 40 but so far the guys we have signed have literally played at a high level within the last year. Sure, they are not the Messi or Ronaldo types but India is a country of a billion people, most of them younger than 30. We will be able to find a core group who will show up just to see the Freddy's, the Capdevilla's, and the Garcia's. Add in the other foreigners coming in from some decent European leagues and you have a pretty decent group that with good marketing should be able to attract so fans.
I just have some suspicions for the format. Will this be like the IPL where we have a game everyday? If so then this could lead to fan burnout where fans get bored of watching a game each and every day. The World Cup can keep that interest up and that is only for a month... a game everyday for 3 months will surely eventually get boring to some people. It should be 3 games during the weekend with 1 game during the week as the "Game of the Week". Like what America does with Monday Night Football or England with Super Sunday.
Also, another concern I have is the direction of the future. We could either go the MLS and J.League route which is to have these marquees but also invest in making our domestic players better as well. Or we could go the way of leagues in China, Thailand, Qatar etc where they spend all their money on marquees but their domestic players remain shit. I hope its the former.
I expect the first season to be jumble. The national team will suffer. The stadiums will seem a little off. The whole thing will just seemed rushed but hopefully the organizers will use this experience wisely and improve the league. Learn from MLS and their mistakes as well as other leagues.
Comments
ISL is a big gamble for IMG. If things fall into place, there will be nothing like it indian football has ever seen. And it will only get better with each year passing on. But, if ISL fails, then along with it will perish thousands of hopes and our football will take another big blow, a big setback which may further pull us back by at least 10 years.
Hope they dont do it very late
Money will flow in though TV. Ads will be sold. Revenue will be there from TV definitely. There biggest aim is to attract people to the stadium. And this is a challenge for them and they know it too. So, lets just wait and see.
People always follow the best. I accept that. That's why a second division can never work here until a particular bond is created with the community. The list to discuss here is endless.