The second season of the Indian Super League is about a fortnight away and clubs’ preseason preparations appear to be in full swing. Prior to the league’s inaugural season, most ISL clubs had hurriedly assembled players and coaches for training camps held in India. Naturally, those camps fell short of the required standards in terms of both facilities available and organization.

This time, however, clubs seem to have taken corrective measures. With the exception of Kerala Blasters, who were last season’s runners-up, all ISL clubs have flown out of India to prepare for a grueling three-month long league (or “tournament” as it is so often called to distinguish it from the country’s national league, the I-League).

Globe-trotters

FC Goa, semifinalists last season and managed by Brazilian legend Zico, are training in the posh city of Dubai. So are Mumbai City, who boast a strong squad this season and are led by marquee player-manager Nicolas Anelka. Both clubs have arranged friendly matches with local teams on their visits. While these two clubs have chosen the Middle East, others have offered quite a variety.

Defending champions Atletico de Kolkata are training and playing friendlies in Spain – a default choice considering their parent club is Atletico Madrid which plays in Spain’s topmost league. Chennaiyin FC, the semi-finalists from last season who mirrored the robust image of their Italian player-manager Marco Materazzi on the field, have continued their pro-Italian stance by flying to Perugia, Italy for a month-long stint.

Delhi Dynamos, who are now led by the great Roberto Carlos, are gearing up for the new season in Sweden. NorthEast United, meanwhile, are training in South Africa and aiming to improve on their last-place finish in the inaugural season. And lastly, the entire squad of FC Pune City has assembled in Turkey for phase two of their preseason training following a conditioning camp in Pune.

Kerala Blasters are the only exception to this trend. The Kochi-based club began its training camp in early September in Trivandrum and hasn’t revealed any plans of flying abroad.

It is natural to contrast an ISL club’s preseason outlay with the flagging fortunes of the national team and the national league. On the one hand, you have one-year-old clubs spending a fortune to train abroad. On the other, you have legacy clubs like Mohammedan Sporting – 123 years in existence – flirting with bankruptcy while the national team too is losing to the likes of Guam.

Professional practices

But let’s look on the brighter side. ISL clubs are bringing in certain practices, such as this massive focus on preseason, that showcase a level of professionalism never seen before in Indian football. It is in alignment with what the concept of ISL has always promised: to gradually raise the standards of Indian football.

During preseason, most Indian players will be exposed to world-class facilities and training methods for the first time. This will not only help their growth but also provide them with the right learning experience for self-conditioning in the future. More of this every year will incrementally have an upgrading effect on Indian football to, hopefully, one day arrive at a generation of footballers who have the capability of competing at the highest levels of Asian football.

It is also refreshing to see club owners investing so much money solely in preparation of the main event. This is a truly footballing investment so to speak – and not one that is aimed at grabbing eyeballs. They appear to have faith in the long-term feasibility of the project and are willing to invest not only in acquiring talent but also grooming players in the right manner. This bodes well for the future of Indian football and is perhaps the closest the ISL has reached to pleasing an Indian football purist.

From the start of October till mid-December, matches will come thick and fast for clubs at an average of once every four days and teams must be fully fit to hit the ground running. Chennaiyin, as Materazzi pointed out, were badly affected by late preparations last season. The club was a last-minute replacement for the Bangalore franchise and Materazzi reckons injuries to key players such as Elano and Stiven Mendoza in the second half of the season could have been avoided with proper preparation.

Eye to the future

However, it must also be noted that the ISL clubs’ willingness to fly abroad is a damning verdict on the state of football infrastructure in the country. Is there not a single training facility good enough to convince the foreign coaches to train within the country? Less than two years remain before India hosts the Under-17 FIFA World Cup. Six provisional venues have been identified for the event but there is a lot of work to be done to use the opportunity in the right manner.

For the All Indian Football Federation, football’s governing body, this shouldn’t be a race against time to develop a few stadiums, organize a global event and forget it a few days later. This should be seen as a chance to create a legacy to impact Indian football in the long run. Far more established footballing nations such as Brazil and South Africa have failed miserably in doing so in recent times, which puts into perspective the enormity of the task.

Coming back to ISL though, the professionalism of clubs points to a better future. After an impressive debut, expect a much higher quality of football in the second season.