Even the staunchest supporters of the Indian Super League would agree that the presently ongoing third season of the competition, until now, has failed to live up to the hype, both in terms of the quality of football and creating a buzz. However, the constant criticism of the league has been slightly unwarranted, especially given how much a league spanning ten weeks has managed to achieve, despite not having completed even three seasons.

The biggest contribution of the high-profile competition has been to damage the status quo that had been plaguing Indian football for almost a decade. The all-pervading sense of despair that had gripped the whole system had to be disrupted for any good to happen, and the glitzy contest comprising of stalwart cricketers, renowned movie-stars, former World Cup-winners and local players in different roles, has played its part.

Infusing modernity into Indian football

The tournament has brought its share of positives to Indian football: recruiting famous coaches from Europe and Latin America, well-planned pre-season tours including matches against strong opponents, using state of the art technology on the training ground, are a few of these. The ISL’s rapid rise to glory, mainly on the power of its financial muscle and a yet-to-be-tested professional approach, has not gone well with the older outfits. Even though five I-League sides did not release players for the inaugural edition of the cash-rich league, they had to eventually bow down before the monster and some of them are now facing the threat of being unceremoniously sidelined from top-flight football, in case the All India Football Federation goes ahead with its proposed roadmap, which looks more like an acquisition than a merger.

However, the attribute that has put off a significant chunk of seasoned football fans is the entity’s over-eagerness to showcase its pledge of nurturing young Indian talents. While it has indeed helped the game earn unforeseen attention in states which are not known as bastions of football, the structural shortcoming that only five Indians get to feature in the starting line-ups is a major roadblock in the path of player development. The current understanding is that the ISL is more likely to be a “learning experience” for a budding footballer who gets to train with a number of acclaimed foreigners apart from being looked after by an experienced set of coaches, even though he may not earn a starting berth.

‘Emerging Stars’? Really?

The numbers also show that the young Indian footballers have not bagged significant playing minutes so far, even though a few exceptions like Jerry Lalrinzuala, Rupert Nongrum, Chinglesana Singh and Rakesh Oram have managed a peek into first-team action. The low representation of young players is most evident if one goes through the list of players who have won the “Emerging Player of the Match” this season – an accolade reserved for a domestic youngster. The likes of Francis Fernandes, Arata Izumi, Aiborlang Khongjee – all of whom have been playing top-tier football for at least ten seasons now, have won the award in the last few weeks.

The commentators have stressed time and time again that the second edition was more successful compared to the first one, as Indian footballers claimed a higher share of total goals scored and total assists recorded. But that inference may have to be chucked this year: Indians have scored only six among the 43 goals scored in the first 22 encounters.

Right from the beginning, the ISL has tried to project itself as a messiah of Indian football, a one-stop solution for all its worries in the world’s most popular sport. The competition, in its claim to have ushered the “Birth of a Footballing Nation”, had shown little respect to the country’s rich history in the game. The ailing I-League surely needed a reality check and a complete overhaul of marketing strategy and ISL has been quick to fill the vacuum to an extent. However, it was understood that the introduction of a franchise-based model would not act like a panacea considering the fact that Indian football suffers from a number of long-term diseases.

Coming up with a better planned and better marketed league was only a small part of the jigsaw. To retain followers in the long run will be a mammoth task for the fledgling competition and in case it fails, the franchises will have to reach the break-even point by cutting costs, which will surely bring down the quality. It is high time the hierarchy gets rid of the rhetoric and takes an objective look at the falling standards to prioritise substance over style.

Image credit: ISL

Atanu Mitra has been covering Indian football for more than four years. He tweets @Atanu00.