Kolkata is a big city to have fan base for many clubs. Fan base for three giants in Kolkata-
MB- Generally original people of WB who are called "Ghati"
EB-Genrally people from East Bengal who came during partition or in 197 war + me
MdS- Genrally Muslims
These three sections will never change camp.
But , there are many people who have become detatched from football due to prominance of cricket. If any club works hard they can tap this section because they are no more loyal to EB or MB. I can see possibility of a club especially for Saltlake and New Town in future. 'Saltlake City' sounds well. Prayag should move to N-B to grow. It will be profitable for them.
There is no problem if 10 clubs come up from Bengal. I-League will become more competitive. 2nd division or perhaps 3rd division will become important. At the same time AIFF should talk with State Governments to support the clubs in their respective states especially - J&K, Punjab, Kerala, UP and North East states.
I dont think we are on the same page here.
Right now Kolkata is home to 4,000,000 people while here in America New York City is home to 8,000,000 (only has 1 club), Los Angeles is home to 3,500,000 (has 2 clubs, 1 of which will relocate), Seattle is home to 600,000 (1 club), and Houston is home to 2,000,000 (1 club). I know you also have people outside of Kolkata but the point is that in a TOP DIVISION each city can really only survive with 2 clubs MAX! For me that is East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. If they stay in Kolkata (or near it) and market towards everyone including the muslims I am sure they will support EB or MB.
Right now if the AIFF and IMG are smart we will have 10-12 teams in I-League. Do you really think having 3 clubs from Kolkata and 4 from West Bengal can really work in 10-12 team league? Even if we do increase to 16 (which would be AIFF asking for liquidation) then it would still be bad. Specially sense the infrastructure is not there. Another club will just slower the process.
I honestly dont care about Mohammedan's history. If they really were a 1st division club they would manage a club properly, I could care less for there problems. Right now go on youtube and watch live East Bengal or Mohun Bagan games. Even when I saw videos of the derby the stadium had HUGE patches of grey emptiness. How would a 3rd club help increase the crowd. Also wait! The crowd at games are not only important. Look at Arsenal and Chelsea. Arsenal get much better attendance than Chelsea but Chelsea is richer, why?... they have more fans. East Bengal and Mohun Bagan need more fans. There fan base is big but has the potential to be bigger. Plus out of three I think we can say that East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are bigger.
Also your acting like that guy from Facebook who said that all 10 Goan Super League clubs should join I-League. 10 Bengali teams will never make it. If they did we would see suicide. This is the TOP DIVISION of Indian Football. It needs prestige. There are so many untapped markets out there. That is why I dont want promotion/relegation. 1) It allows only the stable into the league and 2) It can spread the league out.
For example 2010, ONGC FC and HAL SC were promoted and Shillong Lajong FC and Sporting Goa were relegated. Do you know that now HAL SC is the reason we are not professional. They wont even go to the AIFF-I-League meetings. They dont give a shit. At Shillong Lajong and Sporting Goa do and we relegated them. Lajong are in one of the best markets in India and Sporting Goa are the highest attended club in Goa! Thank god they are back but we still have these shit clubs like HAL and Air India who if we were in A-League or MLS would have been expelled by now. Also where is the Mohammedan website. Where is there marketing.
Tell me now, is Mohammedan good for I-League or not?
The team which performs well enough in division two should be promoted. Simple as that. Ignore rest of the reasons. If Royal Wahingdoh or United Sikkim cannot outperform Mohammedan SC or Vasco then they don;t deserve to be in I-League. If you want to have teams in I-League just because of their location then why bother having a two level division 2 in first place? Just go and visit the clubs and promote them when you like the location and facilities.
The team which performs well enough in division two should be promoted. Simple as that. Ignore rest of the reasons. If Royal Wahingdoh or United Sikkim cannot outperform Mohammedan SC or Vasco then they don;t deserve to be in I-League. If you want to have teams in I-League just because of their location then why bother having a two level division 2 in first place? Just go and visit the clubs and promote them when you like the location and facilities.
Not exactly my point. Location and Stadium should be a major consideration but that is like promoting say Eagles FC. They are in a good location and they have a good stadium already in place but are they stable enough. They dont even fully pay there players yet. Great management over there. They got Jo Paul Ancheri to manage them but financially they are not ready.
This shows what a real club (and league) should have. Good location, good stadium, good infrastructure, good financies, potential and much more are major components.
I like what East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are doing, they should continue but I dont think a 3rd club, whether its Kalighat or Mohammedan, would work. I mean look at India, we are a huge country and there are places that need teams.
Again for the 2012 season we need 10 teams: 2 in Kolkata, 2 in Goa, 1 in Mumbai, 1 in Pune, 1 in Sikkim, 2 in Shillong, 1 in North Bengal.
After that the AIFF should focus on untapped markets. Nagpur, Aizawl, Nagaland, Kerala, Delhi, Punjab, Hyderabad, and Bangalore.
Plus its possible to have a 2nd Division but no promotion/relegation. Here in America we get away with it. In Australia they sorta of get away with it. Plus do we really think what we have now is a 2nd Division? 24 random clubs selected by AIFF! I am surprised no reports of AIFF going public about lost funds has not come out.
You are ignoring the fact that Mohammedan has to potential to draw more away crowd than any other team in India. There was a time when they alone would sell out grounds in Delhi, Kerala or Hyderabad, something even the big two didn't manage. Granted, they don't have the same magnetism now...but they will not regain it till play in top division.
I agree about tapping into new markets. But let these new markets be ready first. Shillong and Pune were ready to compete in top division which is why they made it. If Delhi and Aizawl are not ready yet then they should not play in I-League, simple.
I can't understand this mentality that ALL NE clubs are excellently run and every kolkata club is poorly managed. If all clubs in NE were so well run then we would have had teams doing better in smaller tournaments. United Sikkim participated in Kalinga Cup with full team but didn't win it while Mohammedan with a busier schedule won it.
If you are talking about untapped market then Mohammedan SC is THE biggest untapped market in Indian football. All they need is good management.
i think not many are getting the point of @arsenalfan
what he is saying is that we should get a club who is good in getting some good talented players, increasing fan base, good activity right from grassroot to marketing(this activity is not visible with mohd. sporting) and also the talents available for them to tap and get them induced to the side(already mb and eb get the best talent from that place, so why not clubs from different regions)
we all want best clubs to be at the top but dont these club need to be among the best also in off-field activity as well???
Marketing a club which already has a sizeable fanbase is much more easy than building a fanbase from scratch. You can always hire a professional PR agency to market the club. If Mohammedan make that investment then they will be marketable.
Comments
I dont think we are on the same page here.
Right now Kolkata is home to 4,000,000 people while here in America New York City is home to 8,000,000 (only has 1 club), Los Angeles is home to 3,500,000 (has 2 clubs, 1 of which will relocate), Seattle is home to 600,000 (1 club), and Houston is home to 2,000,000 (1 club). I know you also have people outside of Kolkata but the point is that in a TOP DIVISION each city can really only survive with 2 clubs MAX! For me that is East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. If they stay in Kolkata (or near it) and market towards everyone including the muslims I am sure they will support EB or MB.
Right now if the AIFF and IMG are smart we will have 10-12 teams in I-League. Do you really think having 3 clubs from Kolkata and 4 from West Bengal can really work in 10-12 team league? Even if we do increase to 16 (which would be AIFF asking for liquidation) then it would still be bad. Specially sense the infrastructure is not there. Another club will just slower the process.
I honestly dont care about Mohammedan's history. If they really were a 1st division club they would manage a club properly, I could care less for there problems. Right now go on youtube and watch live East Bengal or Mohun Bagan games. Even when I saw videos of the derby the stadium had HUGE patches of grey emptiness. How would a 3rd club help increase the crowd. Also wait! The crowd at games are not only important. Look at Arsenal and Chelsea. Arsenal get much better attendance than Chelsea but Chelsea is richer, why?... they have more fans. East Bengal and Mohun Bagan need more fans. There fan base is big but has the potential to be bigger. Plus out of three I think we can say that East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are bigger.
Also your acting like that guy from Facebook who said that all 10 Goan Super League clubs should join I-League. 10 Bengali teams will never make it. If they did we would see suicide. This is the TOP DIVISION of Indian Football. It needs prestige. There are so many untapped markets out there. That is why I dont want promotion/relegation. 1) It allows only the stable into the league and 2) It can spread the league out.
For example 2010, ONGC FC and HAL SC were promoted and Shillong Lajong FC and Sporting Goa were relegated. Do you know that now HAL SC is the reason we are not professional. They wont even go to the AIFF-I-League meetings. They dont give a shit. At Shillong Lajong and Sporting Goa do and we relegated them. Lajong are in one of the best markets in India and Sporting Goa are the highest attended club in Goa! Thank god they are back but we still have these shit clubs like HAL and Air India who if we were in A-League or MLS would have been expelled by now. Also where is the Mohammedan website. Where is there marketing.
Tell me now, is Mohammedan good for I-League or not?
Not exactly my point. Location and Stadium should be a major consideration but that is like promoting say Eagles FC. They are in a good location and they have a good stadium already in place but are they stable enough. They dont even fully pay there players yet. Great management over there. They got Jo Paul Ancheri to manage them but financially they are not ready.
Read this... http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2010/08/12/ussf-d-2-professional-league-standards/
This shows what a real club (and league) should have. Good location, good stadium, good infrastructure, good financies, potential and much more are major components.
I like what East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are doing, they should continue but I dont think a 3rd club, whether its Kalighat or Mohammedan, would work. I mean look at India, we are a huge country and there are places that need teams.
Again for the 2012 season we need 10 teams: 2 in Kolkata, 2 in Goa, 1 in Mumbai, 1 in Pune, 1 in Sikkim, 2 in Shillong, 1 in North Bengal.
After that the AIFF should focus on untapped markets. Nagpur, Aizawl, Nagaland, Kerala, Delhi, Punjab, Hyderabad, and Bangalore.
Plus its possible to have a 2nd Division but no promotion/relegation. Here in America we get away with it. In Australia they sorta of get away with it. Plus do we really think what we have now is a 2nd Division? 24 random clubs selected by AIFF! I am surprised no reports of AIFF going public about lost funds has not come out.
I agree about tapping into new markets. But let these new markets be ready first. Shillong and Pune were ready to compete in top division which is why they made it. If Delhi and Aizawl are not ready yet then they should not play in I-League, simple.
I can't understand this mentality that ALL NE clubs are excellently run and every kolkata club is poorly managed. If all clubs in NE were so well run then we would have had teams doing better in smaller tournaments. United Sikkim participated in Kalinga Cup with full team but didn't win it while Mohammedan with a busier schedule won it.
If you are talking about untapped market then Mohammedan SC is THE biggest untapped market in Indian football. All they need is good management.
what he is saying is that we should get a club who is good in getting some good talented players, increasing fan base, good activity right from grassroot to marketing(this activity is not visible with mohd. sporting) and also the talents available for them to tap and get them induced to the side(already mb and eb get the best talent from that place, so why not clubs from different regions)
we all want best clubs to be at the top but dont these club need to be among the best also in off-field activity as well???
Mario 8', Waheed 33', 60'