I-League 2018/19 : Twitter reacts as Star Announces only 30 Games will be telecasted from December 29

Just as everything was going well with the I-League with rising Television Rating Points (TRPs), increase in Stadium Attendances and Social Media Impressions, the league's official Broadcasters dropped a bombshell announcing that only 30 games would be telecasted from December 29 out of the remaining 60 games.

This comes up just a couple of days after Mohun Bagan Football Club's Director Swapan Sadhan Bose's letter to the All India Football President (AIFF) Praful Patel regarding the dipping quality of the broadcasting of the games.

The Social Media already were in an uproar in the past few days questioning the Federation and the Broadcasters' complacent treatment to the I-League.

Contrary to the previous year, this season didn't comprise of High Definition Televised games on Star Sports 3 as all the games were on the Standard Definition except the Minerva Punjab vs Real Kashmir game in Panchkula as the fixture collided with the NEROCA FC vs Gokulam game in Imphal.

These downgraded changes were a clear indication of the cutting-down of costs by Star Sports for the I-League.

While fans in Bengal would not be that infuriated as East Bengal would get nine of their remaining 11 games televised while Mohun Bagan are set to get eight off their next 11 games televised, what comes off as a surprise is that the defending Champions Minerva Punjab will only get one game televised of their remaining 1 games.

The game to be telecasted will be Mohun Bagan vs Minerva Punjab in Kolkata on 9th January.

It is unclear if the excluded games will be streamed on Star's Streaming Platform, Hotstar as of yet.

Star Sports have not made a statement yet behind the reason for this drastic step which will ultimately lead to the eventual demise of the I-League.

One of the reasons could be the crunching screen time for all the events whose Television and Digital Rights have been bought by Star India with the Premier Badminton League and Pro Kabaddi dominating the domestic league charts on Star's Channels.

Let's go through some of the insightful and derisive reactions on Twitter after this sudden decision by Star Sports :

Fans have to now wait and watch if the games are streamed LIVE on Hotstar which could well be the only way for the fans to watch their favourite teams in action.