Indian Super League

[sunnyd]

Mohun Bagan have brought in Jason Cummings, an Australian International (Scottish born) forward that has been lighting it up in the A-League (including winning the Grand Final man of the match award with a hat-trick in the 2023 A-League final). And he's still only 28 years old, so they must have paid big money to tempt him to India at the height of his career.

Definitely the kind of higher quality import that I've been harping that the ISL needs. Will be interesting to see how he adapts to Indian conditions.

[jayakris]

^^^ Hope the ISL attendance will improve from such moves. It has been continually dropping to half of what it was in 2014 at the start. Kerala blasters averaged around 48K people back then... Way down now. It was dropping before Covid and did not really rebound after that. Hope things improve this year onward. The clubs continue to be nowhere near profitable with turnover to debt ratios at 1 to 3... I think better performance of the national team will help improve things in the ISL too.

[rajitghosh]

Are you saying even a Mohun Bagan-East Bengal match doesn't draw crowds? Is Bengali passion dead? Where are the prawns and the hilsas? Just market it well. It is a bigger rivalry than India-Pakistan.

[sunnyd]

Are you saying even a Mohun Bagan-East Bengal match doesn't draw crowds? Is Bengali passion dead? Where are the prawns and the hilsas? Just market it well. It is a bigger rivalry than India-Pakistan.

I believe Jay was referring to average crowds across the league, and not necessarily just the Calcutta derby.

But the ISL has a product problem. When the league was just launched, there's always the additional buzz around something new & shiny. But the main thing was we had football royalty like Zico, Alessandro Del Piero, Roberto Carlos, David Trezegeut etc involved. Agreed, they all came in past their prime, and didn't necessarily do much on the pitch in the short amount of time they were there. But these are figures who were universally idolized by the generations who grew up seeing them play. These days, we have random no-bodies from Spain or elsewhere, brought in from the lower tier leagues in their home country, who aren't that much better than any of our local talent. With a few exceptions, most of these players don't add any value either on or off the pitch.

Aside from the product, the various Indian football entities also need to do much more to engage and develop the potential fan base. The average Indian consumer these days has multiple options to spend their money & time on recreational activities. IPL (cricket), international cricket, European football, top tier International football tournaments (most of which India don't qualify for), NBA (basketball), tennis, F1 (motorsport), movies, streaming services - the options are numerous. Indian football needs to do much more to gain mind share and wallet share of these consumers.

To contrast, let me illustrate my point with my experience after moving to Australia. The A-League was initially (and in some ways still is) comparable to the ISL in some aspects - on unstable financial footing, lack of internationally recognizable stars, smaller market teams struggling to be financially viable, fluctuating talent levels, struggling to gain mind share in a country that is crazy (and good) in almost all sports. However, after getting involved in the local community football scene, I've learnt that the emphasis at the minis level (U8 and below) has shifted from trying to identify & develop the next Messi/Ronaldo/Pele to just ensuring that the kids have fun, and come back to play for the next season. Players start to get "graded" into groups based on ability a little later (U9 and above). This is where the cream/elite players start to get formally identified and progress into professional pathways. But regardless, players of all abilities will still have a league to play in, playing alongside players with similar ability. So what this means is that even the kids who will never go down the professional path will still continue to play recreationally throughout their teens (and many beyond), and will develop into life long fans of the game, and more importantly, paying consumers of the sport. While not all of the problems of the A-League have been solved, the more established teams have developed a pretty loyal and fanatical fanbase, and a pipeline of talent (many of whom go directly to Europe). Many teams also hold school holiday camps in cooperation with local community clubs, further enhancing their brand and developing loyalty with kids who more often then not become their future fan base. Many Europeans clubs do this as well to try and develop an international fan base. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus are some clubs that regularly hold football camps here in Australia.

[prasen9]

Mohun Bagan and Goa are doing quite well and leading the ISL league. Here is the points table:



Source:Sports Keeda

[prasen9]

Bengaluru vs Jamshedpur today. I guess the points may be useful not to be at the bottom. But, without relegation, I doubt teams take things that seriously if they have no chance to win it all. It possibly does not matter much since the ISL does not have promotions and demotions. It does give them the license to play juniors, etc. to prepare for the future but I think the gains from that are small. I agree with Choubey though. We need to have this. Chaubey wants promotion/relegation

[jayakris]

Well, FC Bengaluru beat FC Goa with an injury time goal in a 1-2 loss today, to make the ISL final on 3-2 aggregate.

Guess who scored a diving header in the 92nd minute to take Bengaluru to the ISL final? ... Well, the man known as "who else" to us.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2ZTC5tAGe4g

[rajitghosh]

Churchill Brothers won the I-League and would play in the ISL next year.

[PKBasu]

Well, FC Bengaluru beat FC Goa with an injury time goal in a 1-2 loss today, to make the ISL final on 3-2 aggregate.

Guess who scored a diving header in the 92nd minute to take Bengaluru to the ISL final? ... Well, the man known as "who else" to us.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2ZTC5tAGe4g

Chhetri seems ageless. One helluva goal that!

[jayakris]

And a fabulous goal by Apuiah (that is Lalengmawia Ralte) in the 4th minute of injury time at at the Vivekananda Krirangan in Salt Lake gave Mohun Bagan a 3-2 aggregate against FC Jamshedpur. So Bagan is in the ISL final against Bengaluru FC.

Here is the tremendous Apuiah goal:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lPUdDlYO7Mc

[PKBasu]

Wow! Tremendous indeed. Thanks for posting these, Jay.

Also very heartening to see the stands filled to the brim.

[jayakris]

And Mohun Bagan (or ATK or SuperGiant or whatever silly name they use) won the title, beating FC Bengaluru on an extra time goal in the 96th minute, 2-1... Bengaluru's one goal was an on-goal by Bagan too.

[prasen9]

And, the world is as it should be Regular order.

Right now, they are Mohun Bagan Super Giant. Utterly stupid name. I think to the Bengalis, it is perhaps almost always Mohun Bagan Athletic Club if you really ask people to scratch their heads. MBAC was the name for over a century I think. It is always "Mohun Bagan" when we refer to it colloquially. But, it has been Mohun Bagan Sporting Club, McDowell Mohun Bagan, ATK Mohun Bagan, and then Mohun Bagan Super Giant, which imho is totally ridiculous.

[PKBasu]

Yes, but it is no longer that old Mohun Bagan either. The club has remade itself for a slightly more professional era. It hardly has any home players any more, and is hardly recognizable as the original Mohun Bagan.

[arjun2761]

That indicates that it is a professional team now. Most of the top professional leagues get the best players they can afford from wherever they can find them. Overall a professional league should improve the standard of football in India provided sufficient number of Indians get to play in the professional league. That appears to be case except for strikers and forwards who mostly appear to be foreign. So, we lack quality strikers and forwards but our midfielders and defenders are probably better as they regularly play against better players than if it was a purely local players only league.