By Mark Baber
April 28 – Following the successful auction of Indian Super League (ISL) franchises, the new competition has run into difficulties with fixture congestion and recruitment of players. With Bollywood superstars have been drawn into popularising the game, the AIFF for the first time has suggested a merger possibility of the new league with the pre-existing I-League.
The long-planned ISL is scheduled to kick off September 19, the same day as the Incheon Asian games. Other scheduled dates clash with FIFA friendlies, with the consequence that many internationals at senior and at under-23 level, will be unable to play in the first half of the two-month season.
On the margins of the fifth AFC Football Medical Conference AIFF vice president Subrata Dutta (pictured) downplayed the problem saying: “The ISL and IMG-R understand that the U-23 players will be away on national duty for a brief time. As for the international friendlies, the senior team players will be released for maximum two or three friendlies.”
With I-League teams reluctant to release their players for the new completion, Dutta contemplated a future merger of the two competitions saying: “It may so happen that the ISL will be merged with the I-League. It may happen after five or seven years.”
Dutta insisted the primary task was that. “Both these tournaments need to work hand-in-hand to create a successful football culture in the country,” he said.
Whether the creation of the ISL and its new teams will help or hinder that process remains to be seen. However, Bollywood actor John Abrahams, who together with I-League football club Shillong Lajong FC bought the Guwahati ISL football franchise, is certainly determined to promoted the sport in India and is currently working on a new football film with director Shoojit Sircar.
The film titled ‘1911’, is set to hit cinema screens in October and tells the story of Mohun Bagan’s 2-1 victory against the East Yorkshire Regiment back in 1911, a game in which the barefooted, dhoti wearing Indian team first won the IFA Shield – the world’s fourth oldest club cup competition – against the British Imperialists.
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