At this very moment, Indian football is going through two very different “third season” experiences. While one has provided some insight into how club football in India should be managed properly, the other, expected to provide some succour to the current aridity surrounding the state of the game in India, has only resulted in throwing up more questions.
The first, Bengaluru FC, has risen from being just a club, especially for the inhabitants of the IT city, morphing into an experience, and an enjoyable one at that. Only 90 minutes away from AFC Cup glory and a ticket to the final, the Steelmen have pushed forward without the support of so-called marquee players. With only four foreigners allowed in their squad, the Chhetris, the Vineeths and the Amrinders have succeeded in raising their game to Asian levels of excellence.
Not so, the second.
ISL’s third season syndrome
Prior to the start of its third edition, the Indian Super League was faced by a very pertinent question: Would it be able to live up to the hype of the first two seasons, thus convincing the naysayers and watchdogs of Indian football? Or would it end up as another glitzy marketing stunt, not concerned with the quality of the football being dished out?
With one quarter of the league stage over, we are now in a better position to gauge the initial success of ISL-3. While no single measure can accurately reflect this, the number of goals scored is one of the indicators of how successful the league can be in terms of pleasing football-lovers increasingly helping themselves to a diet of EPL, La Liga and Champions' League matches.
It is a simple but an ideal measure for the Indian football marketplace, where first time viewers may be put off by a 0-0 draw rather than a 3-2 result. Sure, football purists love the high intensity, the drama, the tackles, the beautiful passes, everything surrounding the game, but for the larger masses, it may be decisive results that may help them decide whether to keep following the tournament or not.
So, if goals are the lifeblood of a tournament, ISL 2016 has been a failure so far. One of the primary reasons that last season had large viewership, both in the stands and on TV, was the excitement on offer with 186 goals being scored in 61 matches. That's over three goals per match. The final, which finished 3-2 in favour of Chennaiyin FC, who scored two goals in the last five minutes, was almost a synecdoche for the season.
This time around, the first 16 matches have managed to produce all of 29 goals, at an average of 1.8 goals per match. The quality of play has reflected this meagre return, with teams being ponderous more often than not, opting for a “safety-first” approach with none of them able to manage a comeback win after going a goal behind.
ISL 2015 had produced 39 goals in the first 16 matches, with five teams scoring three goals or more in a match. This time, only one team, Delhi Dynamos, managed to score three – against Chennaiyin FC in their first match. Seven of the 16 encounters have produced either one or no goal.
Faltering Indians and unbalanced squads
The fall in average attendance from 27,000-plus to slightly below 24,000 can be credited to two franchises, Atletico de Kolkata and Mumbai City, moving from the Salt Lake Stadium and the DY Patil Stadium, respectively, with capacities of 68,000 and 55,000, to the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium and the Mumbai Football Arena, able to host only 12,750 and 7,690, respectively.
Another minor reason for this could be the relatively sub-par performance of their local heroes. Of course, some of the missing players were busy turning out for Bengaluru FC in the AFC Cup, but the rest of the Indian contingent has managed only four goals in the 16 matches so far.
Last season, the Indians had scored 48 goals amongst themselves, with Sunil Chhetri and Thongkosiem Haokip being the first two domestic players to score hat-tricks. Chhetri is away on AFC duty, but the next six highest Indian goal-scorers from ISL-2 have all failed to open their accounts so far.
Indeed, barring a few – Sandesh Jhingan, Halicharan Narzary, Kean Lewis, and Sandip Nandy – home-grown players have by and large struggled to influence proceedings. Indians won 14 of the 61 “Hero of the Match” awards on offer last season, but Jhingan and Mehrajuddin Wadoo are the only two Indians to win the award this year.
It would not be fair to blame the dreary football on the Indian players alone. Their foreign counterparts have also struggled with the demands of playing a match every four to five days, and some have succumbed to the heat.
Then, there are the obvious misbalances in the squads, the biggest problematic position being the left back. Kerala are the biggest culprits, recruiting a ton of attackers and midfielders, only to fall short of full-backs, buying just the one, Rino Anto – who is, not incidentally, in the Bengaluru FC squad at the moment.
While some such as Marco Materazzi have trusted youth in the form of Jerry Lalrinzuala in the position, others like Jose Molina have gone for a right-footed player – in this case, Prabir Das – in the position. The Blasters have in fact, had to play their most creative player, Josue Currias, as left back, thereby sacrificing a major attacking threat.
A higher number of players retained may point to defensive stability, leading to fewer goals being conceded, but the truth is that the defences have not been troubled to the extent they were last season. Build-up play has often been slower, and the goalkeepers have had a relatively-free ISL so far.
The AIFF may consider the ISL the future of club football in India, strangely taking away the notions of promotion and relegation. But perhaps they should ask themselves two questions: First, on the evidence of the current season, does the ISL deserve the numero uno status being thrust on it? And second, should the stick of relegation not be dangled over the teams to make them play better, attractive and expansive football?
And a third: should other teams in the country not have the opportunity to play well enough in another division to be promoted to the ISL?
