Chennaiyin FC did not play any of their home matches in Chennai ? why ?
Their home stadium fully satisfied AFC norms. They wanted Chennai to be exclusive territory of ISL and no other footballing action shall take place there. No I-league, no India National team, No AFC Cup in Chennai ?? If this is true, then they do not deserve to progress further.
About Minerva FC, they were a demoralised team with AIFF apathy towards them. They had to literally beg whole year for stadiums and lack of TV telecast bring problem for their sponsors.
Nothing against players and coaching staff of both the clubs- they did a good job.
This is a tough format and lets hope Indian Clubs will do better next year.
Their official reasoning was pathetic. Against Colombo club, one can understand the politics of Tamil Nadu vs Sri Lanka and they didnt wish to aggravate that. But later on, they issued notice that " They have made some Financial commitments to Ahmedabad Stadium. In order to fulfill them, they will play AFC Cup matches in Ahmedabad. " 3 Home matches together in Ahmedabad and then 3 away !!
I do not completely disagree with you but I do contest two points
1. "I dont know why people are suddenly joking about team's budget with qualifying to next round. Havent we already established that passion > money? When top money spending team like EB have not won any league in past 14 years why its surprise that CFC didnt qualify with better budget?"
I would say that in today's world passion and money matters equally when it comes to football. There is no doubt that lack of passion and professionalism have ruined EB's fortunes in the last few years (and I have been most vocal about this on the forum). The players have simply lacked the spirit associated with the club, lesser said about the officials the better. But the budget of EB was way lesser than the budget of an ISL club, particularly in the last 2-3 years when their main sponsor, UB, drastically slashed their sponsorship money. No one can guarantee that if EB or some other club had been afforded the budget of an ISL team and they had invested it shrewdly in player recruitment (officials not resorting to cut money etc.) they would have done much better in the I-league? I would say that BFC in recent times is the only team who have shown how the right combination of passion and money can lead to the success of a club.
2. "enough of this bullshit ISL vs I league drama, get to the real issues."
The ISL vs I-League drama may not be relevant in the context of CFC not qualifying in the AFC Cup but it is one of the real issues plaguing Indian football at the moment. There is no doubt that the apathy of the AIFF and the unprofessionalism of the clubs, especially since the 80s, have contributed a lot to the decline of Indian football but AIFF, in collusion with FSDL, by unilaterally introducing a parallel league and by showing stepmotherly treatment to the I-league, has severely vitiated the ecosystem
There is nothing wrong with this format . If we can't beat Nepali and B'deshi clubs no point in blaming the format . See the fact is that having a couple of mini leagues doesn't help . 18 odd games is too short to determine the best club . One team can play the first half of the league in champion form and the 2nd half of the league in relegation form and can still become winners ,that's not ideal.
Home advantage is important in any tournament like AFC Cup. If any club is in travel mode and plays all 8 games away from their home base, it is bound to affect the performance.
I would like to point out one more thing about that budget issue: After all that hue and cry about small budget clubs being successful, how many of them have been able to build on that success? Both Minerva and Aizawl failed to capitalize on the momentum of the previous season. On the other hand, despite the cut-money and lack of modernization, EB and MB have consistently finished in the top half of the table, mostly in the top 3. That is perhaps where money can take you. With only money, you may not win always, but you are generally more successful. It is in this light that CFC's failure seems irritating.
1. yes thats what I mean "in today's world passion and money matters equally when it comes to football" My remark passion > money was wrt comments which are directly saying CFC lost despite having huge budget , others could do it in half or less. This looks like fanboy argument , If you (as in people )are doing it then atleast stick with your own statements where everyone was busy writing articles how Aizawl, Leicester city, Minerva did it with low budget
2.again The ISL vs I-League is the issue but we are still trying to prove which league is better while we all perfectly know both leagues have their own pros and cons. That's what bothers me. there are already enough troll accounts on fb advocating both leagues.
Anyway , Im saying it again I am not blaming the format. But it is one of the contributing factor. CFC had 7 out of 12 possible points from matches against dhaka and nepali club which is same as Dhaka club, where they could have done better was getting atleast 2 more points against minerva . Now here comes Indian team comparison and it is consistent since 2017. There isnt much difference between teams when you reduce their foreigners. go back to 2014 to 2016 , When ISL teams had 6 they were looking fabulous(somewhat) and I league looked mediocre in front of that with 4. in 2017 when both leagues had 5 foreigners each that time we saw both teams were equal.Point is Our Indian players suck(atleast ones on bench). With CFC they had resolute Minerva who didnt concede at any cost(even against dhaka they did it till 90+3) Like I said even BFC didnt have easy route with similar format, They had MB and Aizawl with them but both were inconstant & didnt pose any threat to be in top 2. In such case even 1 bad result can cost you dearly which is what happened (especially when 2nd best team cant go through)
Looking at abysmal season of CFC, I would say 11 points was reasonable finish ( atleast I didnt expect them to get that)
Of course we should be going through from group stage at-least but I wont be surprised if that doesnt happen. Mark my words Next year we will be discussing same thing if BFC and CCFC plays together and at that time their results against each other would be more crucial.
Comments
Their home stadium fully satisfied AFC norms. They wanted Chennai to be exclusive territory of ISL and no other footballing action shall take place there. No I-league, no India National team, No AFC Cup in Chennai ??
If this is true, then they do not deserve to progress further.
About Minerva FC, they were a demoralised team with AIFF apathy towards them. They had to literally beg whole year for stadiums and lack of TV telecast bring problem for their sponsors.
Nothing against players and coaching staff of both the clubs- they did a good job.
This is a tough format and lets hope Indian Clubs will do better next year.
Against Colombo club, one can understand the politics of Tamil Nadu vs Sri Lanka and they didnt wish to aggravate that.
But later on, they issued notice that " They have made some Financial commitments to Ahmedabad Stadium. In order to fulfill them, they will play AFC Cup matches in Ahmedabad. " 3 Home matches together in Ahmedabad and then 3 away !!
1. "I dont know why people are suddenly joking about team's budget with qualifying to next round. Havent we already established that passion > money? When top money spending team like EB have not won any league in past 14 years why its surprise that CFC didnt qualify with better budget?"
I would say that in today's world passion and money matters equally when it comes to football. There is no doubt that lack of passion and professionalism have ruined EB's fortunes in the last few years (and I have been most vocal about this on the forum). The players have simply lacked the spirit associated with the club, lesser said about the officials the better. But the budget of EB was way lesser than the budget of an ISL club, particularly in the last 2-3 years when their main sponsor, UB, drastically slashed their sponsorship money. No one can guarantee that if EB or some other club had been afforded the budget of an ISL team and they had invested it shrewdly in player recruitment (officials not resorting to cut money etc.) they would have done much better in the I-league? I would say that BFC in recent times is the only team who have shown how the right combination of passion and money can lead to the success of a club.
2. "enough of this bullshit ISL vs I league drama, get to the real issues."
The ISL vs I-League drama may not be relevant in the context of CFC not qualifying in the AFC Cup but it is one of the real issues plaguing Indian football at the moment. There is no doubt that the apathy of the AIFF and the unprofessionalism of the clubs, especially since the 80s, have contributed a lot to the decline of Indian football but AIFF, in collusion with FSDL, by unilaterally introducing a parallel league and by showing stepmotherly treatment to the I-league, has severely vitiated the ecosystem
After all that hue and cry about small budget clubs being successful, how many of them have been able to build on that success? Both Minerva and Aizawl failed to capitalize on the momentum of the previous season. On the other hand, despite the cut-money and lack of modernization, EB and MB have consistently finished in the top half of the table, mostly in the top 3. That is perhaps where money can take you. With only money, you may not win always, but you are generally more successful. It is in this light that CFC's failure seems irritating.
1. yes thats what I mean "in today's world passion and money matters equally when it comes to football"
My remark passion > money was wrt comments which are directly saying CFC lost despite having huge budget , others could do it in half or less. This looks like fanboy argument , If you (as in people )are doing it then atleast stick with your own statements where everyone was busy writing articles how Aizawl, Leicester city, Minerva did it with low budget
2.again The ISL vs I-League is the issue but we are still trying to prove which league is better while we all perfectly know both leagues have their own pros and cons. That's what bothers me.
there are already enough troll accounts on fb advocating both leagues.
Anyway , Im saying it again I am not blaming the format. But it is one of the contributing factor.
CFC had 7 out of 12 possible points from matches against dhaka and nepali club which is same as Dhaka club, where they could have done better was getting atleast 2 more points against minerva . Now here comes Indian team comparison and it is consistent since 2017. There isnt much difference between teams when you reduce their foreigners.
go back to 2014 to 2016 , When ISL teams had 6 they were looking fabulous(somewhat) and I league looked mediocre in front of that with 4. in 2017 when both leagues had 5 foreigners each that time we saw both teams were equal.Point is Our Indian players suck(atleast ones on bench).
With CFC they had resolute Minerva who didnt concede at any cost(even against dhaka they did it till 90+3)
Like I said even BFC didnt have easy route with similar format, They had MB and Aizawl with them but both were inconstant & didnt pose any threat to be in top 2. In such case even 1 bad result can cost you dearly which is what happened (especially when 2nd best team cant go through)
Looking at abysmal season of CFC, I would say 11 points was reasonable finish ( atleast I didnt expect them to get that)
Of course we should be going through from group stage at-least but I wont be surprised if that doesnt happen.
Mark my words Next year we will be discussing same thing if BFC and CCFC plays together and at that time their results against each other would be more crucial.