6 reasons why the ISL can be the messiah to revive Indian football

Football in our country has always been like a B Grade Bollywood movie, we all like it but will never stop our daily errands for it.

It has totally been overshadowed by its bigger, richer and handsome brother Cricket (kudos BCCI). I can say that personally as I had a very funny incident when I was a kid:

At a family function, an uncle (ex-Ranji player for Tamil Nadu) asked me, which sport will you like to pursue as a career and as I was heavily into football, I shot back happily “Football Uncle, without a doubt”. At that moment, almost every person in that room echoed in laughter after staring at me as if I was an alien (like the time we tell them that we do not want to be an engineer).

I was very curious whether I said something funny or they were just being mean. But now I get it, according to the adults, sports means cricket and only cricket.

But now, things have changed, our generation will not laugh if a kid wants to be a boxer or a footballer and that is good; it's a positive trend. The proliferation of leagues for different sports has helped in that regard – Pro Kabaddi League, Indian Soccer League (ISL), International Tennis Premier League (ITPL). As a football fan, ISL was the best thing that has happened to us Indian football fans since the national team winning the Nehru Cup.

Well, call me an optimist but ISL is an answer, not a complete solution, but a very solid answer.

It’s quality all around – from the grounds to the players to the commentators to the new age media to the fans; everyone is going crazy over this new league. Uncles are interested to know if Delhi will play Del Piero or not (2 years ago if you would have asked who is Del Piero, you would have got a blank face). Chennai people love Elano like he is their own boy. Luis Garcia has mesmerized the Kolkata crowd. Robert Pires, Freddie Ljunberg, Andres Santos, Jermaine Pennant are names who we saw on TV and are now playing for our teams, on our grounds, in front of our people, it is fantastic.
The Indian players are now being exposed to real football, training methods, strategy and most important guidance. I mean who better than Del Piero to tell how to score, and who can tell you better than Garcia how to hit the perfect through ball. All this might sound too optimistic, but compared to what we had before this, this is solid gold.
There is a solid criticism that the Local boys are not being given a chance. Well I think they are wrong, you see the lineups and you can see real quality Indian players playing. Players like Anwar Ali, Subash Singh, and T.P. Rehenesh, are all regularly in the team. The local players are being made to fight for a spot, and that is how professional football works. Each player should work hard to earn a place in the playing 11 and this method will teach them to be better than the rest.
As a surprise to many, Indian players are playing very well (not the level of Elano or the marquee signings, but still extremely well). I don't want to go crazy here, but I think over this decade we might build a squad that can qualify and compete for the Asia Cup at least. I love football, so I pray that the ISL becomes a regular event as the people are ready, and the timing couldn't be better.
But the most important thing that ISL has to take care about is stagnation, if the teams do not build solid groundwork in the coming years, ISL may lose its fans. In the end, fans will only stand behind a successful competition. So I request the ISL clubs to start academies, catch them young like in Europe and train them from an early age. Please don't let money decide if India is worth the football that we want, because we Indians are behind our teams till death.
The ISL has now revived my faith in Indian football, we are currently 170 in FIFA ranking, below teams like Philippines and Honduras. I am sure we can't do worse than this. I think if we continue improving domestic football and have faith – both the fans and the organizers, we have a good chance to build a team that may become one of the best teams in Asia by the next decade.

Thank you for the Indian Super League. Come on India, let’s Football!