Impact of ISL on Indian Football

[Shivani133]

ISL has been in operation for nearly 9 years. What has changed in Indian football, other from improved pitches, better transmission, and more compensation for Indian players?

Our national team is losing to teams that we used to thrash (Vietnam), indicating that they have developed while we have not. Instead of improving the I-League, we sold franchises (half of which have closed, shifted ownership and home, or disbanded) and it plainly did not perform as intended because all of them were corporates trying to make money like in the IPL.

Except for BFC, which is an I-League club, the majority of these ISL clubs do not have residential academies. Tata Football Academy, which was formerly the greatest in India, is now managed by Jamshedpur FC, which has collaborated with certain schools but hasn't won a youth league title in a long time. Instead, we see very new teams like Classic FA (Renedy Singh's Club) and Minerva FC coming in and smashing these ISL teams' young sides. ISL clubs have significantly more money than Renedy Singh or Ranjit Bajaj, so why can't they put together a good youth team?

When the ISL was founded, it was stated that it was for the growth of the Indian football team, which is a positive thing, but this did not occur.

So, how do you feel about ISL? Please notify me.

[sunnyd]

@shivani133

As you mentioned, the ISL is purely to progress corporate interests. Indian football at it's core continues to be beset by corruption, politics and straight up incompetence at the administration & management level. There is no real/clear "path" within the Indian football system to take a budding junior and turn him/her into a future professional footballer, nor any interest from most ISL clubs to develop Indian talent for the good of the national team. The problem is particularly pronounced with certain positions such as the striker role.

AIFF keeps tinkering with the league format every few years (as if this is the root cause for our lack of performance), but don't address the crux of the issue which is a strong grassroots to professional system for talented footballers. It's one thing if the foreign import is truly good, but many of them have such poor goal scoring stats that I wonder what exactly the clubs are gaining by buying, playing & paying them. Might as well give the local kids a chance to develop and shine.

[prasen9]

The ISL clubs are not there to do anything for the national team. I hope they try to optimize the quality of their product. If there is a national team player and if we have a high quality local league, even though the initial imports are foreign players, the few of our players who get in will play against higher quality players overall and will develop better. Protectionism and getting low quality domestic players will lead to nothing. So, as long as players who are being brought in are better than the domestic players, then we should be fine. There will be mistakes people make and sometimes the perception is that foreign players are better. That is what needs fixing. Not some patritiotic, altruistic approach to helping the national team. These teams should try to scout broadly and increase the quality of the league as much as they can. The rest will happen organically.

Having said that, some minimal tinkering such as stating that each team must play at least one Indian striker and the league administration should make sure that that player is actually a bona fide striker. Other than that remove any quotas and let the teams play as many foreign players as they want. If the league is successful, then expand to a minor league, competitive 2nd division and encourage teams to scout via minor league giving them player rights for some years and the players some guaranteed pay for some years ... etc.

[sunnyd]

I'm also surprised that no Indian footballer has made a move abroad to play club football, whether via the ISL or independently. Not sure if this has anything to do with the ISL (choosing money to stay in an inferior league over trying working their tail off to make it in a more competitive foreign league where they initially might not get paid as much until they prove themselves). While I admittedly haven't been watching too closely, a couple of GKs getting opportunities in Scandinavia was the last I've heard since Chhetri's foreign spell.

[prasen9]

You can find a list here: Players playing abroad. It is supposedly current. How accurate or complete I do not know.

Here is an article on one of them: Dhruv Alva. The Indian Miracle

[sunnyd]

Interesting. Most of those players on the list were at the very low tiers of the leagues, and are likely Indian origin vs players moving from India. None that would make it into the national team at this time.

Dhruv looks interesting, and one to watch. Still too young, but I applaud his decision to move to Spain independently and back himself. Many highly talented kids in Australia go down this route as well - join a private academy that has connections with European clubs, and bypass a system that might not appreciate them.

[rajitghosh]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_I ... ootballers

This is a pretty good list

[prasen9]

Rajit, your list is perhaps Indian origin players who play in countries other than India. The list I gave, much shorter, is about Indian players playing abroad.

Sunnyd, I think the list I sent was Indian nationals and not Indian-origin players. But, yes, they are not players who would make the national team.

[rajitghosh]

It includes both hence this is more comprehensive

[jayakris]

I don't pay much attention to the stories of some of these players who go out to the lower rung foreign club teams. We have seen some of those for the last 10-15 years but nobody seems to really pan out (i.e., become good enough to play in the ISL and become a noted player in the Indian national team). Am I not right?

[prasen9]

You are right. We have not had a player in the national team play in a top-tier league - mostly.

[arjun2761]

You are right. We have not had a player in the national team play in a top-tier league - mostly.

I don't think we have ever had anyone play for a top 25 league in the world. The likes of Bhutia played somewhere in the 3rd/4th tier of English football who are ranked 28th and 33rd by at least this one website.

[prasen9]

Agree. Thanks for providing a ranking of the leagues, interesting.

[jayakris]

I don't think we have ever had anyone play for a top 25 league in the world. The likes of Bhutia played somewhere in the 3rd/4th tier of English football who are ranked 28th and 33rd by at least this one website.

But Sunil Chhetri did come to MLS Kansas city (who were probably at the Tier-3 or at best the low Tier-2 level of the better European leagues then?). He actually looked okay in 2 or 3 games he played (may be preseason games or something), iirc, too. He said he didn't feel comfortable at all, and took off back to India. He might have got injured too and missed a couple of weeks etc, when he decided that he had had it. This is all after he had made a name for himself already in India though. I remember reading some Kansas City fan forums where the they were actually not happy that he chose to leave (and the team didn't do much to make him stay either), as the fans thought he had a chance to do okay in the league.

[arjun2761]

Per this article, he seemingly played some pre-season matches and one US Open cup match for Sporting KC but didn't appear in a MLS match. He also tried unsuccessfully for one of the top teams in the Portuguese league (Sporting CP).