Indian Super League Has Changed Football in India, Still Not a Permanent Solution
The Indian Super League is still in its nascent stage, but has managed to shatter old biases and put Indian football on the world map. However, lot more credible steps need to be taken for better results.
Indian football will never be the same and Indian Super League (ISL) can take most of the plaudits for this monumental change. (Chennaiyin FC Beat FC Goa to Lift Indian Super League Title)
Still in its nascent stage, the ISL has managed to shatter old biases and put Indian football on the world map. Never before was football in India taken seriously. The west always had a dim view of the state of affairs of the sport in the country. For most, India was only a cricket-playing nation. (ISL: Top Five Indian Performers of the Second Edition)
But what ISL did was not only capture the imagination of an average Indian fan, but also made international football fans aware that cricket is not the only sport played in India.
Football had largely become a 'sofa sport' in India -- fans sitting at home watching and debating about European leagues, rather than going out to watch Indian players.
ISL - the Game-changer
ISL, however, managed to turn even those couch potatoes into stadium goers, and the queue outside stadiums on match-days came as a welcome change.
With it came the cricket stars, Bollywood actors and other entrepreneurs with deep pockets to inject some much-needed money into the sport. (Indian Super League: Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan joins FC Pune City as Co-owner)
© Twitter
At a time when India's main domestic competition - the I-League - is in the doldrums, with many owners threatening to pull out, ISL has come as breath of fresh air. It has dramatically changed the landscape of Indian football. (I-League Has Been a Failure: Bhaichung Bhutia)
Experts have pointed out that the restricted nature of footballing culture in select cities is also major problem for India's failure to have a successful domestic league. That nearly 11 clubs that played in the I-League hailed from only three cities - Goa, Kolkata and Mumbai - did not bode well for Indian football.
But the fact that Chennai were the semi-finalists in the first year and the winners of the second season just goes on to show that ISL is well on its way to making the sport a pan-India phenomenon.
Not The Way Forward For Indian Football
However, the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) decision to give precedence to the ISL over the I-League is extremely dangerous. For all its positives, the ISL is not the way forward to bolster India's fortunes in the footballing world. (Indian Super League Good For Show, 'Zero' Benefit For Indian Football: Zico)
Yes, the ISL has certainly created that buzz, that anticipation about Indian football and has garnered a lot of publicity but that is all temporary. How long can a country, which boasts of more than a billion people, can be interested in a product that doesn't run through the entire year.
Two months out of a year is not nearly enough for even the greatest coach in the world to resurrect India's footballing fortunes. Then how can a league, which boasts of stars who have left their best years behind, do that.
Yes, there have been talks of a merger between the I-League and the ISL but there has been no credible steps taken in that direction. The roadblocks in front of it seem like a mountain to climb. (I-League, Indian Super League May be Merged: AIFF)
After two successful seasons, the ISL has certainly changed the landscape of Indian football for the better but it can't possibly be the country's domestic equivalent to the Premier League or the La Liga or the Bundesliga. That's why, ISL's impact is only temporary and a more permanent solution is needed.