MUMBAI: As East Bengal FC marked 100 years of existence on Saturday, All India Football Federation (AIFF) general secretary Kushal Das delivered some hard truths to the powers that be running the Indian footballing institution.
Echoing what SportzPower has consistently been articulating these past months, Das exhorted East Bengal to undertake a more professional approach and evolve with time to meet the changing demands of Indian football.
He maintained that the Bengal giants are an integral part of Indian football and expressed his optimism that they will continue to add on to their legacy.
During a live event with Sportstar on Sunday, Das, while congratulating the club on reaching the historic milestone, spoke about how East Bengal must work on opting for a more professional approach with regards to their running the club. “What steps East Bengal should take – I think it is very important that you have to change with times. The club should have various departments that cater to investors, sponsors, competitions, and so on. The top officials should not try to micro-manage the club. The fact that Quess and East Bengal had to part ways was not a good thing,” the AIFF secretary said.
Das also poured cold water on any talk (which has been mostly emanating from the club’s portals and parroted with nary a question by more than one media outlet) that East Bengal could possibly be a part of the Hero Indian Super League this season, as too any suggestion that the AIFF could play the role of facilitator. He pointed out that the federation will not do anything that is not in accordance with the roadmap already laid out by the Asian Football Confederation, given that the AIFF was answerable to the AFC.
“There was a roadmap which was agreed by all the stakeholders. This roadmap is approved by the AFC and we are simply following that roadmap. If we don’t follow the roadmap, AFC will question us,” he said.
About all that Das was willing to concede on the matter was that eventually the club would be a part of the ISL, with a rider though. IF they “embraced professionalism”.
Former East Bengal star Bhaichung Bhutia, also had pretty much the same to say during the Sportstar webinar. Bhutia expressed confidence that that the historic club would play in the ISL some day (emphasis ours) but pointed out that there was still a lot of work to be done before “the leap” could be made.
Said Bhutia: “I think you have to learn from the mistakes Quess and East Bengal’s joint venture ended up making. It was not a happy ending and it was not a good development for either Quess or East Bengal. We have to make sure that this does not happen in the future. The club gets a very bad reputation in the corporate world and that isn’t good.”
“Changes happen both on and off the field and East Bengal need to get used to it. When I played there, the situation was different and now times are different.”
While signing off, the football legend offered some more parting advice: “If you are not organised and cannot sustain there, then entire idea of playing the ISL makes no sense.”
