There is no chance East Bengal and Mohun Bagan would agree to League 1. IMG-R are in a catch 22 situation. They can't antagonise East Bengal and Mohun Bagan as there would be a backlash with the fans . Already Mumbai FC have written to FIFA and one Goan club will be writing to FIFA soon. On the other hand if IMG-R accommodate East Bengal and Mohun Bagan then RP Goenka and ATK will be pissed off. And IMGR cannot afford to antagonise an investor. Already this year the ISL will be in serious problems with regards to stadiums. Sundar Raman the fixer has spoilt relationships with all the stakeholders. A lot of Reliance staff are also pissed off with him.
The one game that Goans play and play well is football. Goan contribution to national football is hugely disproportionate to the demographic strength of Goans relative to the rest of the country. India became the first Asian team to enter the semi finals in Olympic football, Melbourne 1956. The quarter finals saw the first and only hat trick ( even till date) scored by an Asian player at the Olympics. And that distinction goes to Neville D’Souza, a Bombaybased Goan, who scored three out of the four Indian goals.
Football in Goa, in the sixties and seventies, of the last century was synonymous with the “ clube”, a name by which Vasco Sports Club was endearingly known. Salgaoncar Sports Club was not far behind in public esteem.
Dempo joined the football feast a decade or so later and then Churchill Brothers and Sporting Club made it a Goan fiesta. The emergence of the National League gave the teams a semi- professional outlook and the players, a reasonable salary for the first time. It finally looked like India was marching towards real professional football. But like everything else in the country, the flower has withered away before it could bloom.
And now, the crisis. Suddenly, the clubs that nurtured and developed football during critical days are simply being forced out of the game, they so painstakingly helped develop. The All India Football Federation not surprisingly is bitten by the money bug and in the bargain, the teams and the players, are being pushed into the wilderness.
An act of complete injustice.
The federation is now seeking to replicate the IPL, and has created the ISL. No problems here whatsoever.
The problems with AIFF begin at the top. Nowhere else in the world do you have a president of the football association, who it is said had never attended a football match until he joined the administration, and is believed never to have kicked a football.
The only game that Praful Patel is understood to have played in his native Gondia is ‘ kirket’ and ‘ kabaddi’. His only claim to be the president is his financial and political clout. And where did his money come from? Would you believe it? Praful Patel is the king of Indian beedies. Now, we all know that smoking and football are sworn enemies.
How then do you expect the country’s tobacco king to promote smoking and football at the same time? And, if he continues any longer, do not be surprised if Indian football too soon goes up in smoke! Due to shenanigans of the football federation, the Goan football teams and players face doom. The NFL/ ILeague is now proposed to be made into a second tier league to be played by those who have developed Indian football over the decades. And with no scope for promotion to the ISL. The ISL is for those who have the money like Jaidev Modi to buy the teams as a commercial proposition. And bribe whenever and wherever required. However, unlike the IPL where the world’s top cricketers participate, the ISL has become an arena for aging and retired discards from international football to display their diminishing skills before the gullible viewers.
The simple demand of teams playing in the I- League and who have spent fortunes in meeting the requirements set by AFC and AIFF club licensing policy is that these teams should be accommodated directly into the ISL without having to pay a franchise fee.
Considering the role played in the development of football by teams such as Dempo, Salgaoncar and Sporting Club from Goa, Mohan Bagan and East Bengal from Kolkatta the demand is just and fair. The other demand of the teams that the ISL should be governed directly by AIFF and not by commercial agency is also not unfair.
When the Goan teams withdraw from I- League as they have threatened to, the football season in Goa will conclude with the professional league by the end of December every year. The players’ salaries will be reduced to a pittance, and football will no longer be an attractive proposition.
The game will soon find itself in limbo. The only football that Goan fans may get to watch at the national level is when FC Goa play in Goa.
The one solution to football maladministration in the country would be to give the AIFF the similar treatment, as given to the BCCI recently by the Supreme Court by accepting the recommendations of the Lodha Committee which are : a) Civil servants, ministers and those who have completed the age of seventy, be banned from holding BCCI posts. b) Each of the office bearers shall have a three years term and can contest for a maximum of three terms, with a mandatory cooling off period in between term. c) Have a member of the CAG on board. d) Parliament to decide whether to make RTI applicable to the BCCI. e) There shall be players association in the BCCI. f) One person can hold only one post in the administration.
It is likely that the issue of football maladministration will soon reach the Delhi High Court through some football lovers from Kolkatta, with the help of activist lawyer Prashant Bushan. And therein lies hope for rejuvenation of football in the country.
And for us, Goans there is yet a God sent opportunity to bring the misdoings of the AIFF to the notice of the bosses. The AFC Congress ( General Body) is scheduled to be held in Goa, this September end. It is to be attended by AFC President and the top brass of Asian Football. It is believed that newly elected FIFA President Gianni Infantino is also keen to attend. It is time Goans show that when it comes to football we are not ‘ soucegado’. Come on football fans, let us organize ourselves and use the AFC Congress to expose the racketeers.
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