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Saviours? Or the vampires that sucked the blood and soul out of everything in Indian football? We'll let you make that judgement for yourself when you finish this reading this.
The deal was signed between IMG-R and the AIFF. The football-loving public of the nation cheered - it was the dawn of a new era, they thought. It would change the footballing landscape of the nation, they thought.
Well, maybe in some ways, it did. Indian Football, as we knew it, began its slow death in December 2010, as it fell prey to the interests of its commercial partners. Football in this country is not what football should be.
Yes, the IMG-R run Indian Super League (ISL) has taken football to newer centres, made football a prime-time offering, shown players that you can make a living out of football.
For Chennai and Kerala, the advent of Chennaiyin FC and Kerala Blasters FC put their respective states back of the Indian Football map. Jamshedpur now has a claim to Indian Footballing fame, outside just the Tata Football Academy.
But, at what cost? For every Chennaiyin FC, there has been a Royal Wahingdoh. For every Kerala Blasters FC, there has been a Rangdajied United. There have been the Pune FCs and Bharat FCs of the world. All these clubs stopped their first team operations, after having played in the I-League.
That's not the only thing common. All of them stopped first-team operations because they had no clear indication of the roadmap of Indian Football's way forward. They didn't know what would happen to them.
Henna Singh, Director and Co-Owner of the reigning Champions of India, Minerva Punjab FC, did not mince her words when addressing smaller regional football clubs. "Don't walk, run away," she tweeted. Chilling.
Let us remind you again of the latest transgression - the remaining I-League fixtures will not be telecasted in entirety on Star Sports - which is the host broadcaster of Indian Football.
Imagine having a host broadcaster - who also runs the parallel league with your commercial partner - who does not telecast every single game of what is still, on paper, the top division league in the country. Imagine a parallel competition, officially the country's knockout cup in the AFC books, being exposed to prime-time eyeballs but the nation's top league is given step-motherly treatment.
Just sample this, every ISL game this season is broadcasted, and begins at 7:30 PM IST. Last season, the I-League title-race had gone right to the wire, with four teams in the running to win the title on the final day. Obviously, all four clubs played simultaneously. The time? 3 PM IST. The day? Thursday. Good luck!
One absolutely undisputable fact is that Indian Football has been given a set of amazing propagandists, to fool the gullible masses of this country.
Remember this? The I-League won the silver medal in the “Best Developing Football League of the Year” category at the SPIA Awards held in Bangkok.
So, in its next instalment, they have just decided that the said league should not have every single one of its games broadcasted. Remember, there was also little transparency about the criteria or the judging parameters for leagues to have been adjudged as winners at the above awards ceremony.
The Indian Football fan must be furious today, more than ever. This is your sport, the very foundations of which are being eaten away by leeches - the very same leeches that are there to protect the interests of all of Indian Football's stakeholders.
And then we come to Mr. Praful Patel, the President of the AIFF.
Oh, let's correct that. Mr. Praful Patel, the WhatsApp-forward-peddling, lying, misleading, President of the AIFF.
What has Mr. Patel done for Indian Football, really, apart from leaving it at the mercy of its commercial partners?
Boast about our rankings increase? Sure, we beat Nepal, Bhutan and Laos a few times.
Blow his trumpet about qualifying for the World Cup after the next one? Pfft, bore, done it too many times.
In 2014, Mr. Patel reassured us that the I-League will be the "League of India", the ISL was just a "booster dose" and that some ISL clubs were in talks to "progress to the I-League".
Well, that the I-League was always supposed to be the League of India, ISL clubs would move to I-League, etc, have all been proved as lies already.
You know what, India, what are you expecting to be fed if the campaign in the UAE in the Asian Cup goes haywire? You know what you're getting, don't you? Of course, they're ready. The leeches are ready to give you some haphazard justification and then move on.
Did you think that just an injection of money into Indian Football was going to automatically inject enough footballing ability into Indian players for them to be able to consistently produce big results?
India, enough is enough. It's time to wake up, look beyond the World Cup qualification propaganda, look beyond the Federation's deceit, look at the AIFF's incompetence. It's time India takes back control of its own Beautiful Game.
It's time India has control of its game enough to not be asked to sit down and watch in stadia, for it to be able to chant what it wants, unfurl banners how they want.
It's time India has the real football again.
