well breaking away from AIFF will never be possible for IMG..if the national body doesn't sanction the league no international player will get their ITC..FIFA will save AIFF in this regard i guess...And for this very reason i believe AIFF could have done a bit more bargaining with IMG..Instead they are giving it all away and going by their whims and goes on postponing the I-League again & again
ISL is going to be a double edged sword. If it fails, people will say (rightly) that there is no hope for football in India. And the game will die. If it succeeds, then the bigger problem of Ambanis hijacking Indian football for years to come. Indians will have a league ... but a private one where rules will be bent for the owner's good and money will be laundered. And I am sure Indian football will not benefit from that. No country runs a private league as the main league.
In fact, I am apprehending the success of ISL more than its failure.
And as for India qualifying for Asia Cup 2023: the biggest daydream (even for the dream specialist). You are a simpleton to expect players to play in full steam for NT after playing ISL, I-league, Fed Cup, and what not! Just wait to see India sliding down the ranking further (that is, if there is space to slide: oh, Afghanistan has vacated their place for India to occupy, and soon Vanuatu and Timor Leste will do the same favour).
And as for India qualifying for Asia Cup 2023: the biggest daydream (even for the dream specialist). You are a simpleton to expect players to play in full steam for NT after playing ISL, I-league, Fed Cup, and what not! Just wait to see India sliding down the ranking further (that is, if there is space to slide: oh, Afghanistan has vacated their place for India to occupy, and soon Vanuatu and Timor Leste will do the same favour).
HERE he is talking abt india qualifying for asia cup not world cup.....even i believe that india will qualify for 2023 ASIAN cup i'll not mind if they loose in group stage...wat is important that they shud be regular in asia cup ....Things will change after U17 WC we will have gud stadium , a proper infra and after U17 WC we gonna have pool of U17 young players....i'm optimistic qualification in 2023 asia cup is realistic dream even 2019 asian cup can be achieved if luck favours with hard work .As for world cup we should not focus there for atleast 20 years ...first priority shud be dominance in SAFF and then regular premium customer in asian cup along wid strong performance in youth Asian games....dont be so pessimistic
And to be honest, if the ISL can not produce Indians who are good enough for the Asian Cup by 2021 (qualification of the Asian Cup in 2023) then really the ISL is not serving its purpose and people will become suspicious.
Are we expecting isl to produce players.I thought it was for spreading the word Indian football among epl loving indians inorder to spin money for a particular entity.
I thought ISL was a source of revenue for AIFF to take indian football to the next level. I think the money which AIFF got for India U-16 team Netherlands tour was from IMG-Reliance. And what about money for upgrading football stadiums for U-17 World Cup in 2017?
@Karansh They also said they would spend money on improving the quality of Indians which is needed if they want to send out a good product. No one will want to deal with an Indian Super League in which the Indians can't even make it in South-East Asia!
BTW, just out of curiosity, I also kinda agree with Gaffer on the marquees. I had a think about it and honestly the question occurred to me... what will happen when Joan Capdevila arrives at North East United FC? He does know this is Assam right? This is not Barcelona, Lisbon, Villa-real, or Madrid... this is Assam. Can you even compare these cities with Guwahati? I mean, this is a professional footballer who, through his career, was probably used to going to luxury clubs (as in dance/strip clubs) or partying etc. Can you get this Guwahati?
Perhaps this is not a real issue as the rest of the league has some good nightlife, especially Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and I believe Kolkata (never actually seen) but if the owners want to expand the length of the league this is something to consider.
This also made me think of MLS and how the ISL marquee idea partly came from MLS. Every time I hear that example I hear of David Beckham, Thierry Henry etc. but what about the rest? Keep in mind that the last team to ever have a marquee was the Colorado Rapids who finally signed one last season... more than 6 years after Beckham. Also, has is occurred to IMG-Reliance that not every marquee in MLS is a superstar like Beckham? We have guys like Alvaro Saborio, Oswaldo Minda, Boniek Garcia, Cristian Maidana etc as marquees?
These are no where near Beckham or Henry so why is it that in ISL the idea is that every team must have a major superstar marquee? I mean, I get it for the publicity but in the long-run it won't be like that. Unless you are a team in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad etc you are never getting a super-star long-term. Better off investing in a smaller marquee type signing from South America. Salaries are low/barely ever get payed. Quality of life is shit (part of the reason Diego Valeri came to the US was because he was mugged at gun point in Argentina) and the chance to be the main man.
I don't know, this does not apply for now but for the future. It just came to my mind.
If you remember @arsenalfan700, I had in this very forum raised this issue of quality of life in india and the situations that will ultimately prevent top players from coming to india. I mean, look at us. These guys are used to driving in luxury vehicles. But, here we dont have the roads for them. They are accustomed to top quality vilas. Here, we don't have an option as luxury as our western counterparts. But, I do think that this distinguishes our country from the rest of the world. Our culture, our tradition is different. And, living in a foreign country is all about experiencing culture apart from football for professionals. Yeah, in the long run moving with families is not gonna happen for european footballers, but certainly south americans are gonna find it amazing. Much better than what they are used to at present. I think in the long run the maximum we can do is to have a league like MLS, We should forget about EPL,LA LIGA. we can never match them. Even if our country becomes good at football, they are gonna be lured by the prospect of playing in good leagues abroad and all that we will be left with is second grade footballers. No top star wants to come here. Can you tell leo messi or ronaldo to play in his country?? No. Therefore, their leagues are also not the strongest
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Perhaps this is not a real issue as the rest of the league has some good nightlife, especially Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and I believe Kolkata (never actually seen) but if the owners want to expand the length of the league this is something to consider.
This also made me think of MLS and how the ISL marquee idea partly came from MLS. Every time I hear that example I hear of David Beckham, Thierry Henry etc. but what about the rest? Keep in mind that the last team to ever have a marquee was the Colorado Rapids who finally signed one last season... more than 6 years after Beckham. Also, has is occurred to IMG-Reliance that not every marquee in MLS is a superstar like Beckham? We have guys like Alvaro Saborio, Oswaldo Minda, Boniek Garcia, Cristian Maidana etc as marquees?
These are no where near Beckham or Henry so why is it that in ISL the idea is that every team must have a major superstar marquee? I mean, I get it for the publicity but in the long-run it won't be like that. Unless you are a team in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad etc you are never getting a super-star long-term. Better off investing in a smaller marquee type signing from South America. Salaries are low/barely ever get payed. Quality of life is shit (part of the reason Diego Valeri came to the US was because he was mugged at gun point in Argentina) and the chance to be the main man.
I don't know, this does not apply for now but for the future. It just came to my mind.
I think in the long run the maximum we can do is to have a league like MLS, We should forget about EPL,LA LIGA. we can never match them. Even if our country becomes good at football, they are gonna be lured by the prospect of playing in good leagues abroad and all that we will be left with is second grade footballers. No top star wants to come here. Can you tell leo messi or ronaldo to play in his country?? No. Therefore, their leagues are also not the strongest