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Minerva Punjab took to social media to call out I-League broadcaster Star Sports for streaming poor quality visuals during the coverage of their match against Chennai City FC. The match, which took place on Sunday just before the Kolkata Derby, ended goalless.
Minerva alleged that Star is not giving the I-League as much importance as the Indian Super League or any other domestic league. The club pointed out that the I-League matches are being telecast only on Star Sports 3, which has no HD coverage.
On the contrary, all other sports, including the Ranji Trophy matches, are broadcasted on HD channels as well as the regular SD channels.
The picture quality from the match that Minerva are referring to was indeed low and it was hard to identify the players. Minerva’s tweet read, “Dear @StarFootball, we’ve received numerous mails from our fans regarding the broadcast quality of our match against @ChennaiCityFC. #IndianFootball deserves better and honestly, we are tired of this step-motherly attitude towards @ILeagueOfficial.”
Sportskeeda contacted Minerva-owner Ranjit Bajaj and he said, “The match had significant importance. The defending champions were facing the league leaders and the outcome of the match changed the table. But the streaming quality was so poor.
“The I-League is recognised as the top official league of the country where the winner gets a chance to represent the country in the AFC Champions League. So, why a step-motherly attitude been has been shown against us? Even the Ranji Trophy matches are broadcasted in HD,” Bajaj added.
Minerva's tweet comes a day before their match against Mohun Bagan, who are coming off a 2-3 loss to East Bengal in the Kolkata Derby.
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Bajaj hopes the coverage of this match would improve after their protest. “We are going to play a big match tomorrow. Any match which involves a team like Mohun Bagan would earn more rating points than a kabaddi match. I-League will not be far behind as far as TRPs are concerned. So I am hoping for some better coverage,” he said.
Minerva also added that the Jaipur leg of the Pro-Kabaddi League, which is happening adjacent to Minerva's home ground Tau Devi Lal Stadium, had better streaming quality compared to the I-League.
Commenting on this, Bajaj said, “Even though Kabaddi court takes a small area, they had 15-20 cameras from different angles. But in a football field, which is much bigger in size, they had only four cameras. The footages looked like it was shot from mobile camera. Many of our fans complained this to us.
“I have no qualms against kabaddi or cricket, because they are popular sports in our country. But the same coverage should be there for I-League also,” he added.
Bajaj also said the I-League should be given the same importance as ISL. He felt both the leagues are same in terms of quality and competitive nature. “Earlier there was a perception that I-League is the second tier league of the country. But Super Cup showed there is not much difference between the clubs of these two leagues. If you put some more money for I-League marketing, it would fetch more profits than ISL,” Bajaj said.
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“Every I-League club have a major fanbase. You saw 65,000 people came to watch the Kolkata Derby. On every matchday of Gokulam, 30,000 people show up.
"Even in the north-eastern parts of our country, clubs like Neroca, Aizawl and Shillong Lajong draw so many fans. Why you are not giving the due importance?” Bajaj added.
Many users on Twitter supported Minerva's concern and hoped that the Star would take the I-League seriously.
Here's what they said:
