Going through all the discussions, ISL has atleast been successful in one thing..bringing up renewed interest in Indian football..I don't care which process it takes so that I can see my country within top 100, just go for whatever it takes..be it I-league be it ISL..Story ends...
I would wait for season 1 to get over before drawing into any conclusion, not only bringing renewed interest in India football but what would be the IMPACT?!
@arsenalfan700: that way IMG-R lose control over the money-spinning league.
@souravindia: not only does the story end here, the Indian football story may end also. Player pool gets reduced, players stretched too long, national calender going haywire: you think these are prescriptions for India going to the 100s? I think it will send the country to the 200s.
@Deb_ban: You are right and frankly it is the same that we have done with the advent of National League/I-League.
Players pool has reduced drastically on the pretext that we will get professional and better players through National/I-league. Going with this idea(i.e THINKING) we slowly killed all existing amateur tournaments in India but TOTALLY forgot that we needed an excellent SCOUTING network to compensate the same. The clubs are to take the majority of its blame.
Atleast before this national league, since clubs played a lot of amateur tournaments, a lot of players used to get noticed (Baichung came from Sikkim Governors Gold cup). Now don't get me wrong. I am not vouching for all these tournaments to remain but on the contrary putting up the point, that we should have on the very verge made sure that we start running an equally potent scouting network to get the talents that we will be missing. We took drastic steps without having proper backup plan, let alone forget about having an academy in place.
We have almost killed Kolkata league, but are you aware how many of suburban players used to get noticed through the extremely low funded teams in the league. No way these clubs were professionals but at least they used to throw talents. If we want to be professional , we should also take steps to make sure we do not loose our supply line. Where are all the academies, all the scouts, all the youth development programs that is required to supplement the adverse effect we were going to have??? No one thought about it.
And yes, with ISL same thing might happen and I am also pessimistic there. Infact I have been against it right throughout voicing my concerns again and again. I don't want the players pool to reduce further. But still I am not against any change. While Indian football cannot go to further doldrums I want to see if this change is for the better. I want to see the promise made on Youth development--will they sustain it or behave the same way as I have seen past 25 years (Yes I have been following Indian football such long and I will continuously vouch to do so) and keep on hoping for the better on my deathbed.
I-League has never been organised properly Mr Dhar who has been appointed CEO has never prepared a proper calender till date. Poor scheduling of matches since IMG-RIL took over, where matches were played in hot humid conditions for telecast purpose.
Also why does I-League have break in Dec ?? Also why does it start in Nov or Dec when it could have begun in September itself. I have to say that AIFF has never put any kind of effort to improve the I-League so there is no point in saying it was a failure.
We should judge the success or failure of any product based upon its current condition...not based upon some assumptions on "what would have happened" on the basis of some more approximation.Please accept,I-League is big failure,whatever might be the reasons.There is a valid question floating around the forum...why AIFF-IMGR is bringing a new League of 2 months instead of renovating already existing National League.I can bring some points:
1)I-League has already passed 7 years but still not able to generate enough interest in the football following community of India.If they try to market it in proper way,there might be chances that it will not be accepted yet again.Accept it or not,peoples is attracted to new products rather than old product in new pack.
2)Its not possible to attract interest from the Corporate world with existing I-League as the I-League is Club based league and this clubs will prefer sponsors rather than partnerships with the corporate.Where there is no guarantee of revenue generation for the corporate in I-League,why will they be interested in investing huge amount of money?
Rather it seems logical to open a franchise based league where the corporate world can be directly involved.
3)If this league generates enough interest in India then in future they can merge the I-League and ISL making it a 8 months national league.If ISL becomes popular then the clubs entering ISL will easily get sponsors.And if AIFF-IMG shares the money from TV rights and all then the Club can spend more in their team building,infrastructure building and youth academy.
4)We will get a huge pool of foreign players if the league can create enough buzz world wide.We have to agree on the point that it has already successful to generate descent media attraction worldwide.Let's give ISL some time and observe what it can deliver.
We will be in fools world if we say, ISL is the ultimate solution of all the problems existing or it will change Indian Football overnight.But surely its having the potential to change our attitude..our attitude towards Indian football...If ISL becomes successful(Yes, there is lots of Ifs and Buts still now),surely it will bring professionalism,growth in infrastructure and over all change in the overall quality how football is played in this country.
Comments
@Deb_ban: You are right and frankly it is the same that we have done with the advent of National League/I-League.
Players pool has reduced drastically on the pretext that we will get professional and better players through National/I-league. Going with this idea(i.e THINKING) we slowly killed all existing amateur tournaments in India but TOTALLY forgot that we needed an excellent SCOUTING network to compensate the same. The clubs are to take the majority of its blame.
Atleast before this national league, since clubs played a lot of amateur tournaments, a lot of players used to get noticed (Baichung came from Sikkim Governors Gold cup). Now don't get me wrong. I am not vouching for all these tournaments to remain but on the contrary putting up the point, that we should have on the very verge made sure that we start running an equally potent scouting network to get the talents that we will be missing. We took drastic steps without having proper backup plan, let alone forget about having an academy in place.
We have almost killed Kolkata league, but are you aware how many of suburban players used to get noticed through the extremely low funded teams in the league. No way these clubs were professionals but at least they used to throw talents. If we want to be professional , we should also take steps to make sure we do not loose our supply line. Where are all the academies, all the scouts, all the youth development programs that is required to supplement the adverse effect we were going to have??? No one thought about it.
And yes, with ISL same thing might happen and I am also pessimistic there. Infact I have been against it right throughout voicing my concerns again and again. I don't want the players pool to reduce further. But still I am not against any change. While Indian football cannot go to further doldrums I want to see if this change is for the better. I want to see the promise made on Youth development--will they sustain it or behave the same way as I have seen past 25 years (Yes I have been following Indian football such long and I will continuously vouch to do so) and keep on hoping for the better on my deathbed.