Before starting our conversations, to make it clear, I am among those very few people of this country who had started following Indian football... i am a Bayern fan... since this is a discussion, it might be a probability that some of the mentioned facts are wrong... the onus is on you guys to improve the things....
It is a hot discussion among Indian Football following groups that post the new plans by AIFF, the indian football tradition will die in the fire of falsely marketed, money oriented, cartoon football. We had already seen some of these comic football tournaments in the versions of ISL organised in the past. So Am I trying to declare that ISL is not helping Indian football?... Well,certainly not, ISL atleast helped in reaching out to a new set of audience, though marketing strategies of this tournament, i believe were handled by some B-School marketing idiots, who do not know the realoity, but sell dreams to audience which never asked for such things.
What actually Indian football is... and where are we heading to... and what that tradition actually meant...
If you are a follower of Indian football, and heard names like Mohun Bagan. East Bengal, Mohammaden, Black Panthers, Air India, Dempo , Churchill Brothers, Salgaocar, Mahindra United etc. you may be probably very well aware of the tradition I was about to talk...
Be it Mohun Bagan or East Bengal or Mohammaden in kolkata, or the Goan clubs like Dempo or Salgaokar, or the young man's football club of Kochi, and many more from numerous cities located in all corners of the country, these all clubs had some thousands of loyal fans who supported their local men like anything, be it donating money, to donating land for building football ground, or sacrificing good job opportunities to other places just to make sure they never miss their club's matches, The fan following of these clubs was very much similar to those we see in European countries at the same time very local. The association can be understood with a single fact that tens of young men committed suicide just because they saw their club losing match against the rival in kolkata derby. There is this story of a young boy in Calcutta, who wrote in his suicide letter that by committing suicide he will take a rebirth and then join his club and help it to win the match against their biggest rivals. Or the numerous stampedes at Salt Lake which left scores injured. You see thousands of people gathering in Shillong, to watch their local teams taking on the rivals, sometimes these local teams are even not a part of ileague system, they are just some college level teams, however i guess the loyal fans of these small clubs will outnumber that of delhi dynamos or Hritik Roshans Pune team, in that regard. And then there is this cult following of these teams, who in their traditions, in their social life had mixed the essence of their clubs.
In Recent history, the rise of new clubs like Bengalure FC, having their own fairytale of winning Ileague titles, or DSK Shivajians spreading this message to Punekars that their own team exist in the national club football scenario apart from Pune FC. And then the Aizawl just coming out of nowhere and winning the national title. Royal Wahingdoh's stroy of coming third with an amateur team. Shillong Lahjong, always attracting its own cult following to the stadium be it any part of the country. People love their clubs when they see an honest story behind the formation of their clubs, when they see pure dedication and commitment towards football, when they associate themselves and walk parallel with the growth path of their clubs. Its that following, that bond which ISL and its highly budgeted teams does not have with their fans. You see Kerala blasters stadium in ISL, people call it India's Borussia dortmund, but where is that feeling outside the stadium? Do they really love their club, or its just a 90 minute excitement committed to the high money involved.
This is a part 1 of series on Indian football! Will be continued for nexy few weeks....
It is a hot discussion among Indian Football following groups that post the new plans by AIFF, the indian football tradition will die in the fire of falsely marketed, money oriented, cartoon football. We had already seen some of these comic football tournaments in the versions of ISL organised in the past. So Am I trying to declare that ISL is not helping Indian football?... Well,certainly not, ISL atleast helped in reaching out to a new set of audience, though marketing strategies of this tournament, i believe were handled by some B-School marketing idiots, who do not know the realoity, but sell dreams to audience which never asked for such things.
What actually Indian football is... and where are we heading to... and what that tradition actually meant...
If you are a follower of Indian football, and heard names like Mohun Bagan. East Bengal, Mohammaden, Black Panthers, Air India, Dempo , Churchill Brothers, Salgaocar, Mahindra United etc. you may be probably very well aware of the tradition I was about to talk...
Be it Mohun Bagan or East Bengal or Mohammaden in kolkata, or the Goan clubs like Dempo or Salgaokar, or the young man's football club of Kochi, and many more from numerous cities located in all corners of the country, these all clubs had some thousands of loyal fans who supported their local men like anything, be it donating money, to donating land for building football ground, or sacrificing good job opportunities to other places just to make sure they never miss their club's matches, The fan following of these clubs was very much similar to those we see in European countries at the same time very local. The association can be understood with a single fact that tens of young men committed suicide just because they saw their club losing match against the rival in kolkata derby. There is this story of a young boy in Calcutta, who wrote in his suicide letter that by committing suicide he will take a rebirth and then join his club and help it to win the match against their biggest rivals. Or the numerous stampedes at Salt Lake which left scores injured. You see thousands of people gathering in Shillong, to watch their local teams taking on the rivals, sometimes these local teams are even not a part of ileague system, they are just some college level teams, however i guess the loyal fans of these small clubs will outnumber that of delhi dynamos or Hritik Roshans Pune team, in that regard. And then there is this cult following of these teams, who in their traditions, in their social life had mixed the essence of their clubs.
In Recent history, the rise of new clubs like Bengalure FC, having their own fairytale of winning Ileague titles, or DSK Shivajians spreading this message to Punekars that their own team exist in the national club football scenario apart from Pune FC. And then the Aizawl just coming out of nowhere and winning the national title. Royal Wahingdoh's stroy of coming third with an amateur team. Shillong Lahjong, always attracting its own cult following to the stadium be it any part of the country. People love their clubs when they see an honest story behind the formation of their clubs, when they see pure dedication and commitment towards football, when they associate themselves and walk parallel with the growth path of their clubs. Its that following, that bond which ISL and its highly budgeted teams does not have with their fans. You see Kerala blasters stadium in ISL, people call it India's Borussia dortmund, but where is that feeling outside the stadium? Do they really love their club, or its just a 90 minute excitement committed to the high money involved.
This is a part 1 of series on Indian football! Will be continued for nexy few weeks....
