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 :

Well done @StarSportsIndia & obviously the main villain for destroying @ILeagueOfficial FSDL-only one more match of @minervapunjabfc to be telecast after the @NerocaFC match tomorrow-also 30 matches not to be shown as FSDL thinks its not as important as ISL pic.twitter.com/wJahxtR1OH

— Ranjit Bajaj (@THE_RanjitBajaj) December 22, 2018

On the one side, this is the state of the I-League. Yet, on the other side, AIFF suits earn recognition from AFC for peddling superficial nonsense. And when you mock all of this, that cricket-crossover-to-football expert fella with great everyday trivia asks you to apologise. https://t.co/YKbcaSJvYi

— Akarsh Sharma (@Akarsh_Official) December 22, 2018

Biggest factor in the death of sports culture in this country, mark my words.Whereas we as a large nation should be watching football, basketball, hockey, athletics, gymnastics etc, we're stuck to watching pointless cricket re-runs.

— Arka Bhattacharya (@ArkaTweets10) December 22, 2018

Just when I was starting to believe Indian football is moving in the right direction and something good will come up of I-League, this happens. It's not that I-League is capable of growing. But steps like these throughout the years has hindered Indian football's improvement. https://t.co/FNofLeNoK4

— Sk Nasim Akhtar (@SkNasimAkhtar15) December 22, 2018

Honestly, have been expecting this since Star got their rights for I-league. ISL has been a pet project for them & Reliance from the start & they are killing off any meagre competition. https://t.co/IA59F2jweO

— Somnath Sengupta (@baggiholic) December 22, 2018

Reliance has tried to kill the I-League every step of the way, but the worst has to be the kind of shit @hotstartweets does while streaming the games.Am watching @ChennaiCityFC v @realkashmirfc and the game has paused ,ran in loops, granulated atleast 10 times so far

— Abhranil Roy (@BeerOfBukowski) December 22, 2018

Footballing Oligarchy blatantly at work. Utter disgrace. Let @StarFootball release the rights to I-League if they're not interested in broadcasting it... We'll watch it on @mycujoo.Meanwhile, starting today, I #BoycottISL.@IndianFootball@Ra_THORe

— Kuch Bhi (@muchacojones) December 22, 2018

Surely these meticulously plotted activities to kill @ILeagueOfficial and forcibly supplant it with @IndSuperLeague have to fall foul of Competitions Commission of India @CCI_India and even @theafcdotcom, @FIFAcom.https://t.co/F9YIbsQYt8Vision and Mission statements of CCI: pic.twitter.com/VmmNIjNv8P

— Kuch Bhi (@muchacojones) December 22, 2018

I had a FSDL official moaning about the lack of coverage for #IndianFootball at the kit launch on Wednesday. Maybe I am guilty, but I wish he'd stuck to his words at least https://t.co/30zDhgSGAu

— Mihir Vasavda (@mihirsv) December 22, 2018

You think you've seen it all, step-motherly treatment and all that towards the @ILeagueOfficial, but now this is just cheap. How will #IndianFootball grow in this pseudo-poisonous ecosystem?

— Sandeep Menon (@SandeepMenonTOI) December 22, 2018

With the #HeroILeague title race and relegation battle becoming more and more exciting, @StarFootball in their immense wisdom have decided not to telecast 30 of the remaining matches. Bravo, @StarSportsIndia. Exactly what #indianfootball needed right now. Exemplary commitment... https://t.co/v9HuIWjb2J

— Chiranjit Ojha (@ChiranjitOjha) December 22, 2018

To be frank, I'm not surprised. #IndianFootball finding new ways to kill the @ILeagueOfficial . I hope teams stand up against this though. @ArkaTweets10 @Aashin23 @Raghav1210_BS @SgtSaltnPeppa incase you missed it https://t.co/oVP6S1hget

— Nevin Thomas (@nevinthomas) December 22, 2018

It’s a tragic situation indeed, if there was 1 piece of advice I would give to upcoming clubs, it would be to CUT YOUR LOSSES NOW AND GET OUT BEFORE YOU ARE SUCKED IN!#RunDontWalkAway #IndianFootball #NoCountryForFootball https://t.co/FjfGMtLZk1

— Henna Singh (@Hennasing) December 22, 2018

Ah for once it was looking like things are going good for Indian football and @StarSportsIndia decides to start making decisions that are crippling the Ileague !! #IndianFootball

— Scruffy (@dshivran) December 22, 2018

Its time for leaders like @chetrisunil11 to step up & point out the injustice that continues with @ILeagueOfficial teams. From the non selection of players from this league 2 the blatant attempt 2 disregard their strong fanbases, this is the biggest disservice to #IndianFootball https://t.co/nGvnOUh4DL

— Anirban Datta-Roy (@clixbyman) December 22, 2018

This is how you treat your so called premium league of the country. 30 matches out of live telecast. #Indianfootball @StarSportsIndia @IndianFootball #heroileague pic.twitter.com/l3pZkyqrPY

— TheRebel (@sayan_dusk) December 22, 2018

It was on the cards..When it comes to I-League it was AIFF's own tournament so FSDL can do almost everything they want and it will not have any direct impact upon them but ISL is a Reliance & Star product. If any loss(financial/popularity wise) occurs it will hurt them directly.

— Rishav Chakraborty (@RishavC03) December 22, 2018

@StarSportsIndia if you have a dedicated stars sports 3 channel for Indian football why scale back on telecasting @ILeagueOfficial ????

— Ajith Harish (@ajithharish37) December 22, 2018

Feeling shame on @StarSportsIndia They have time to telecast all live events all over the world & also highlights of the matches that happened years ago & repeating the same again&again. Now they've no time to telecast the main Football league of our country #YouNeedOnlyMONEY🙏😡 https://t.co/bsEpZgS4zT

— N!dh!N (@i_am_nikkz) December 22, 2018

@StarSportsIndia if you can't even telecast the top division league in india... Get the hell out of the field.. go find some ***':*** .. #saveileague

— Battalia Gokulam Kerala FC (@battalia_gkfc) December 22, 2018

Bhai, you know Star Sports??? Today only they cut off 30 matches of I-Lg.

— arya (@Iam_Aryalok) December 22, 2018

Bhai, you know Star Sports??? Today only they cut off 30 matches of I-Lg.

— arya (@Iam_Aryalok) December 22, 2018

its all about money....just they want to kill @ILeagueOfficial 😠😠😠

— GKFC Ultras (@gkfcultraas) December 22, 2018

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.