Stephen Constantine said that no ISL club is bigger than the national team. (Source: Express Archive) Stephen Constantine said that no ISL club is bigger than the national team. (Source: Express Archive)

In the book ‘Delhi to the Den’, India coach Stephen Constantine said that the Indian Super League (ISL) has outranked the national football team of the country.

In the book, he wrote, “Our players could earn huge sums in the ISL – Sunil went for almost $200,000, while Eugeneson got $150,000 – but not if they were injured. In my opinion, the medical had a huge effect on our performance. I’m not pointing fingers – Sunil and Eugeneson have been fantastic for me – but, overall, we were flat. It wasn’t the last time the ISL would affect my team.”

On his meeting with ISL managers, Constantine said, “At the ISL auction in July, I met a number of teams’ managers, including David Platt, Roberto Carlos, Zico and Marco Materazzi. They were all supportive. I said I wanted the players from 26 September for the Oman and Turkmenistan games. No one objected, so I planned a ten-day training camp.”

“In Indian football, it seemed, the ISL outranked the national team. We got the players on 5 October, like the ISL wanted, with some players not arriving until the evening. But even that wasn’t enough for some.”

He, however, reinstated that he was not against the idea of the tournament and even praised Nita Ambani for the initiative. “I am not anti-ISL. It has done a fantastic job for Indian football by attracting fans – and sponsors – who never looked at the game before. The chairperson Nita Ambani deserves all the credit in the world. She thought big, which I love, and it has worked. Indian football was sleeping and she has woken it up. But you can’t have a league that doesn’t work in sync with the national team,” he said.

“I couldn’t let the ISL run the national team. No club is bigger than India. If we want to become a top-100 team, or qualify for the World Cup, we have to think big. Sadly, the AIFF weren’t able to resist the ISL. I was overruled and the players left Oman in dribs and drabs in the early hours. They didn’t even stay for the post-match meal. The ‘India team’ that arrived in Delhi consisted of seven members of staff and two players. It was embarrassing,” added the coach.

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