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Dempo, Salgaocar, Sporting Clube de Goa, JCT, Mahindra United. These are just some of the legacy clubs that have scaled down their operations massively or shut down completely in the past decade.
Of the 23 clubs that participated in I-League over various points of time from 2007 to 2014 before ISL's inception, only 6 (East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan SC, Churchill Brothers, Indian Arrows, and Bengaluru FC) have their senior team playing in either of the top three divisions of India.
Sunando Dhar laments closure of legacy clubs
Speaking at a live event digitally organized by Naval Tata Academy, Odisha, I-League CEO Sunando Dhar lamented their decision to curtail their operations.
"Any club, big or small, when they close their operations, it is not good for the game. Whether it be Dempo which has one of the most attractive records when it comes to winning national leagues or clubs like JCT, Mahindra United, Salgaocar, it is never good for the football."
"But, I am sure they had some issues, financial or otherwise. It's good to see some of them like Dempo still with the game contributing into youth development, grassroots, and doing a fantastic job in infrastructure in Goa."
However, on the flip side, Sunando Dhar also spoke about how a lot of new generation clubs have come up in Indian football and the overall investment in the game has increased.
"But, if you look at the bigger picture, for 10 clubs closing down, there are more than 40 clubs opening up. And, I am not only talking about the ISL clubs but also about clubs and academies across the country.
This might be a biased answer but I would like to believe that there are more clubs which have opened than those which have closed down. The total investment in Indian football has gone up by leaps and bounds.
And, whether it's in ISL when they advertise for a new club and begin a bidding process or it's the I-League, we see clubs wanting to join the bandwagon," Sunando Dhar added.
