Vishnu Prasad By

CHENNAI: On Wednesday, as a number of European giants prepare to do battle in the Champions League, a couple of Indian clubs will also represent the country in their continental competitions. And while the likes of Atletico Madrid and Manchester City will attract plenty of eyeballs from India, Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC will not be a part of the TRP battle. The reason? Their matches are not even on television.

Star Sports, which holds the right to telecast AFC Cup matches in India, have decided that Bengaluru FC’s away encounter against Laos Toyota FC and Mohun Bagan’s ‘home’ game against Maldivian club Mazriya (being held in far-flung Guwahati thanks to the Salt Lake Stadium being under renovation) are not worth the effort. The official line is that Star can only telecast what Asian rights holder Fox Sports Asia produces. But that may not be a good enough excuse to placate the two I-League clubs, who may take a leaf out of BCCI’s book and shout ‘conflict of interest’. After all, it is the same Star India that part-owns the Indian Super League — an entity many I-League clubs see as an existential threat.

While Mohun Bagan secretary Anjan Mitra was, surprisingly, unwilling to comment on the issue, BFC COO Mustafa Ghouse termed the decision ‘unfortunate’. “It’s definitely unfortunate. It would be great for everyone in India to get the chance to see both teams play abroad. Last year a few were televised, others were not,” he said.

While a sojourn in European competitions represent a financial windfall for teams, an AFC run is often more bane than boon. There is the inevitable fixture pile-up that comes with a continental run (Bagan had to play four games in 11 days while attempting to qualify for the AFC Champions League). With zero television income, the best-case scenario involves clubs recovering their continental spend from the meagre subsidy that AFC provides and the prize money they earn.

“You can make a fair amount of prize money from the Champions League,” Ghouse said. “But right now, Indian clubs have not reached the stage of qualifying for the Champions League. Indian teams have done well in the AFC Cup and there is a decent amount of prize money when you get past the round of 16 stage. There is a subsidy provided by the AFC that you can use for the away travel or for organising your home games. There is no television revenue that we get for participating in the AFC Cup. But we don’t look at it in that aspect. We are committed to doing well in Asia.”

The decision to black-out the matches has not gone down well with supporters of both Bagan and BFC, who have started an online campaign to get Star Sports to change their mind. A petition on change.org already has over 900 signatures. But, as if to add insult to injury for these fans, Star Sports will be telecasting football of a different kind, almost exactly when Bagan kicks off against Mazriya on Wednesday — the best of ISL 2015!