PANAJI: Politics has entered the fray and how in the matter of the future status of the I-League in the Indian football pecking order, the bragging rights for all practical purposes currently being with the Indian Super League (ISL).
First was a letter jointly written by six I-League clubs (under the banner of the United I-League Clubs) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to “save Indian football”. That was followed up by the two Kolkata club biggies Mohun Bagan and East Bengal roping in Kailash Vijayvargiya, national general secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, to “support the cause”.
The latest move in this game of political pressure tactics is coming out of Goa. State chief minister Pramod Sawant Tuesday requested the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to intervene and help the state’s popular club, Churchill Brothers, in overcoming the crisis currently facing Indian club football.
Sawant’s action followed a meeting with Churchill Brothers FC president Churchill Alemao and CEO Valanka Alemao.
Supporting the club’s plea, the chief minister, in a letter to the PMO, wrote: “Football is a sport that singularly connects every Goan and invokes a sense of passion. Goa has given illustrious football legends to the Indian sports arena. I request the Prime Minister to consider examining the matter put forward by Churchill Bros FC,” assured Sawant.
In the club’s submission to Sawant, Alemao stated: “We have been providing a pan-India platform for talented players from Goa, other parts of India and even from abroad to showcase their talent with specially the Goan football players gaining the much needed experience and exposure which catapults them for higher and bigger events at national and international levels.
“As of now we are the torch-bearers of Goan football in the National League and as such we must continue enjoying the pride of place especially for the sake of Goan players. The I-League has been the top division league in the country and the status need to be maintained at all costs.”
The Churchill Brothers CEO added: “The ISL is a commercial championship without a system of promotion and relegation as required by FIFA statues under its Sporting Merit clause. It is more like the IPL in cricket, a closed-league, there being no culture of Indian football. There is no legacy.
“The AIFF is dependent on the finances to sustain itself and as such it entered into a Masters Right Agreement (MRA) in 2010 with IMG-R which affects the rights of the I-League clubs as it has been contemplated in the agreement that the ISL would be made the senior most league in preference to I-League which would eventually be displaced to the ordinary or no status at all.”
