KOLKATA: Aggrieved by the lack of coverage after the revised I-League telecast schedule by official broadcaster Star Sports last month, seven I-League clubs met under the banner of the I-League (Private) Clubs Association in the city last week to “mobilise the entire football community to fight the injustice”.
According to a statement, I-League clubs are up in arms after the tournament’s official broadcaster Star Sports recently announced that it will cut the television coverage to just 30 of the 61 matches remaining in the season.
While former champions Mohun Bagan are the only side who could see all their matches shown on television, defending champions Minerva Punjab FC were the worst-hit, and newcomers Real Kashmir FC will be partially affected.
The other member clubs besides Punjab and Kashmir include Chennai City FC, Neroca FC, Aizawl FC, Gokulam Kerala FC, and Shillong Lajong FC.
Interestingly, Bagan, East Bengal and Goa’s Churchill Brothers are three top I-League teams that haven’t joined the nascent body with the former two likely to join the Indian Super League (ISL) from next season, according to Goal.com.
Fronting the protests is Minerva Punjab owner Ranjit Bajaj, who has time and again criticised the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial and marketing partners Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) for step-motherly treatment to the country’s notionally “premier league”.
Bajaj has reportedly alleged that that an FSDL official’s personal agenda against him has resulted in Punjab’s matches being the least telecast of all teams after the 10th round. The unnamed official was earlier working with a rival I-League club.
The association has given the AIFF till 5 January to meet their demands otherwise it will take the legal route through either Indian civil courts, the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) or world football’s governing body FIFA.
“In light of the recent decision by Star Sports/AIFF/FSDL/IMG-Reliance not to broadcast 30 of the remaining matches of the I-League, the I-League clubs had approached Praful Patel for an urgent meeting, however we did not get any response,” Bajaj said in a media statement.
“We have set January 5 as the deadline for AIFF to respond. After that, I will be forced to approach the civil courts of India, CAS and FIFA.
“Before the start of this season, we had three demands – all I-League games should be telecast, all matches should be telecast with the same quality (as that) of the Indian Super League (ISL) and should get similar kind of promotion. All these demands were verbally agreed and no contract was signed as Mr Kushal Das (AIFF general secretary) assured us telecast of each and every game. Now we get to know only 80 games will be shown out of the 110.” Bajaj stated.
Goal.com further stated that the association’s other demands include a unified league based solely on promotion and relegation and the AIFF to function as an independent body, without any third party interference as it stands in violation of FIFA regulations’ articles 19.1 and 19.2.
