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Journalism of Courage
At last, the impasse has been broken. And seemingly, everyone’s on board.
For five years, Indian football faced a severe identity crisis; mostly with respect to domestic competitions.
The Indian Super League (ISL), five years old and run jointly by Reliance Sports and Star Sports, staked the claim to become India’s premier football tournament. The move was opposed by the clubs playing in the I-League, which has enjoyed that status for two decades (include the decade when it was called the National Football League).
The All India Football Federation (AIFF), tangled in a complex web of commercial and contractual obligations, remained indecisive. Finally, on Monday, with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) as the mediator, the warring parties found a middle ground.
Following a meeting with the AIFF and club officials, the continental body announced that ISL will replace I-League as the premier domestic competition. For several years, the I-League clubs had been opposing this move as it would have, in one stroke, relegated the entire competition to second division. That, they in turn feared, would threaten their very existence.
But the AFC seems to have persuaded them by dangling a carrot. The I-League clubs have been assured that starting 2022-23 season, the winner of the competition will be promoted to the ISL; and from 2024-25 the ISL — a closed league so far — will have to adopt a promotion-relegation system, which wasn’t possible thus far due to contractual obligations.
Here’s the AFC’s four-point plan for Indian football:
The ISL, which begins on October 20, has been conferred the status of India’s premier league. As a ‘special compensation’ to India, the AFC will allow the ISL champions to compete in the AFC Champions League playoffs, while the I-League winners get to play in the AFC Cup playoff.
Two I-League clubs will be allowed to enter the ISL by the end of 2020-21 season on the condition that they pay Rs 15 crore franchise fee and meet the club licensing criteria.
Starting 2022-23 season, the winner of I-League will stand a chance to be promoted to the ISL without any participation fee on the basis of ‘fulfilling sporting merit and the national club licensing criteria’. The I-League side will not be entitled to share from the central revenue pool, which was Rs 13-14 crore per team on an average last season.
From 2024-25 season onwards, the two parallel leagues system will be abolished. ISL will introduce promotion and relegation system, in sync with most leagues around the world.
Every party, including the AFC, has conceded some ground to end this logjam. And although there’ve been multiple roadmaps before, there is renewed optimism after Monday’s outcome. “There is a lot of inclusiveness. There is enough and more clarity on the issue. We can build on this,” Bengaluru FC CEO Mandar Tamhane, who was at present at the meeting, said.
As much as ensuring ‘inclusiveness’, doing away with the closed league system was also a lot to do with increasing the number of teams in the top division. With 10 teams in ISL and 11 in I-League, an Indian player plays half the number of competitive matches in a year than the global average.
However, if the proposed plan is executed, then from 2024-25 season onwards – when the promotion/relegation system kicks in – the ISL will have 14 teams. “We have informed AIFF that 10-12 teams are not enough for the top League – it must be bigger,” AFC secretary general Dato Windsor John said in a statement. John’s views were echoed by Mumbai City CEO Indranil Das Blah. “If you are a football lover, you want a league with more than 8-10 teams and you want promotion and relegation. That seems to be the future. We are extremely happy with the developments,” he said.
East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are the two I-League teams likely to join the ISL when the window opens at the end of next season. It is not yet clear as to how the I-League will be restructured going forward with regards to issues like number of teams, broadcasters and such. In fact, whether they can sustain is question in itself.
Challenge to generate revenue
In the last few years, Goan giants Dempo and Salgaocar along with other teams like Pune FC scaled down their operations after realizing that the I-League would be relegated to second division. For these clubs, it was a challenge to generate revenue even when they dominated the I-League when it was the top division. To survive in the second tier would’ve been a bigger challenge.
That’s a question that stares in the face of most I-League clubs. Ranjit Bajaj, the owner of former champions Minerva Punjab, is optimistic. “At least we now have something to show potential sponsors and investors. We can tell them that in five years, we have a chance to qualify for the top division which will multiply the revenue,” Bajaj, who has been one of the biggest critics of AIFF and IMG-Reliance, said. “If they go ahead and do this, it’ll be a great thing.”
