By Mark Baber
October 14 – The Indian Super League held an extravagant Bollywood/footballing extravaganza on Sunday to open the long-awaited start of the new competition which aims to awaken the “sleeping giant” of Indian football. Amidst all the hype, voices of caution advised of the difficulties involved in building fan bases from scratch, in a cricket obsessed country and warned of the historical precedent of similar ventures in the USA.
The 45-minute ceremony in the giant Salt Lake Stadium attracted 68,000 fans to launch the ISL, a competition supplementary to India’s traditional league, which will include 61 matches over the next 10 weeks.
Guest of honour was West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, with those present including Sanjiv Goenka (vice-chairman of RPG Enterprises and co-owner of Atletico Kolkata), Praful Patel (All India Football Federation president) and Nita Ambani (chairperson of IMG-Reliance and founding Chairperson of Football Sports Development).
Those entertaining the crowd included Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Sivamani and actor Priyanka Chopra who performed to a number of Bollywood tunes and introduced the eight new franchises and some of their marquee players and coaches including Sourav Ganguly and Luis Garcia (for Atletico de Kolkata), Parineeti Chopra and Alessandro del Piero (Delhi Dynamos), John Abraham and Ricki Herbert (North East United FC), Dattaraj Salgaocar and Robert Pires (FC Goa), Abhishek Bachchan and Elano Blumer (Chennaiyin FC), Hrithik Roshan and David Trezeguet (FC Pune City), Ranbir Kapoor and Fredrik Ljungberg (Mumbai City FC) and Sachin Tendulkar and David James (Kerala Blasters).
Local media hailed the performances in unrestrained fashion, claiming “This is truly the birth of a footballing nation!” Mamata Banerjee declared “Football can conquer the world!” and Praful Patel hailed the ISL mission, “To take football to the nook and corner of India.”
Asian Football Confederation president Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa also sent a letter expressing his best wishes, saying, “I would like to congratulate you on the launch of the new league. I am confident that this eight-team competition with a total of 61 matches will increase the popularity of the sport in India and will create a strong fan base for Indian domestic football.
“The knowledge and experience gained from this competition will also help the clubs in raising their profile and will strengthen the national team in future. I would like to wish all the eight teams the very best and wishing you all the success for this new venture.”
Notwithstanding the hype, business-oriented Quartz India hit a cautionary note with an article quoting football analysts Paul Masefield saying, “This is a baby step for Indian football. The ISL has signed big names but the sustainability has to come in four or five years. You can go and watch Freddie Ljungberg, David Trezeguet and Nicolas Anelka and they will have an immediate impact, but there are a lot of questions to be answered in the future. What about the facilities? Who will play in the next seasons? Is it financially viable?”
The article harks back to the North American Soccer League which attracted Pele, Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer but “expanded rashly and imploded spectacularly.” Describing the entry of Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka into the Chinese Super League as a “mishit” the article warns “The ISL may find itself replicating a model that has failed in the past.”
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