Before pointing fingers at clubs for not bringing in fans, the AIFF must look at the mirror first

The last week turned out to be a tumultuous one for the Indian football hierarchy, who found themselves at the receiving end of brickbats when Goan side Sporting Clube de Goa took a strong dig at the secretary of the All India Football Federation, only four days after the club’s decision to withdraw from the upcoming edition of I-League – India’s official top-division football competition.

While the club sited the “lack of vision on the Federation’s part” – a tune hummed by a number of fellow I-League clubs – Kushal Das, the general secretary of the governing body did not seem perturbed by the situation. “So what if Salgaocar or Sporting Clube de Goa have decided not to be part of I-League?” he said in an interview to IANS before going on to claim that FC Bardez, a club launched only six months ago, has more fans than the Flaming Oranjes (as Sporting Clube de Goa are nicknamed).

An embarrassment to Indian football?

This did not go well with the management of the Goan outfit, who called Das “an embarrassment to Indian football” and opined that he “has no clue about football in India”. This is the first time a senior official has faced such a personal attack from a club in the recent past, but the seeds of this retaliation were being sowed over the past few months.

In their bid to legitimise the proposed roadmap of Indian football, the Federation’s top few officials have systematically targeted the age-old clubs regarding their waning fan-bases and dwindling attendance figures in matches. “It was also evident that they were unable to create a fan base to sustain themselves,” Das had earlier remarked about the Goan I-League clubs.

“If they have so many supporters, why can’t they get good sponsors?” Patel had quipped about East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. While the constant feud between those sitting at the Football House in New Delhi and the I-League clubs continue to hog the headlines, it must be noted that the points raised by Das can also be used to point a finger at his own organization.

Should the yardstick be applied to AIFF?

If not having a stable fan base or a sponsor for a few years can be reason enough to deem a football team irrelevant, then why are we not also talking about the lukewarm response the teams taken care of by the AIFF have received in the last few years?

Six years ago, the Federation founded a developmental side named AIFF XI (later rechristened as the Indian Arrows and Pailan Arrows), which was the first major platform provided to a bunch of talented youngsters, many of them going on to represent the national team in the future.

However, despite the noble motivation behind the initiative and the number of fledgling footballers in their ranks, the team failed to stir any interest in attracting fans to the stadium throughout their three-season plight in top-tier football.

In most of the matches played by the team against non-Kolkata opponents, the attendance barely reached three-digit figures. In a match that stands out in memory, ten minutes before the kick-off of a Arrows’ match against United Sikkim on January 28 in 2013, I was shocked to find that there was not a single person in the stands.

Six of the youngsters (Pritam Kotal, Pronay Halder, Halicharan Narzary, Alwyn George, Dhanpal Ganesh and Sandesh Jhingan) who were on show that winter afternoon, have already made their debut for the national team.

Different rules apply?

So, it was definitely not the dearth of talent that resulted in the empty stands, it was the failure of the club’s management – in this case the AIFF – to chalk out a marketing plan. The team wrapped up soon afterwards due to lack of funds, an extreme case of the cash-crunch many Indian clubs find themselves fighting against.

So, the metrics that instigate the step-fatherly attitude towards certain clubs by the AIFF are the very ones in which they have miserably failed during their short venture in club football. The senior national team also seems to be suffering from the same problems.

In a recent World Cup qualifier against Turkmenistan in the football frantic town of Kochi, only 3111 fans could be lured to the stadium. If the clubs that managed to stay afloat despite belonging to an eco-system where making profits was impossible, why will the AIFF not come under the scanner in the same yardstick?

On the other hand, if having a big fan-base is considered as one of the most important attributes for a club, why has the governing body not taken extra care in keeping a club like Mohammedan Sporting in the I-League, which used to get close to 30,000 fans in almost all the matches a couple of years ago even though the performance was below-par and they were relegated at the end of the season?

If Aizawl FC could be reinstated in the top league despite being relegated, why did the Kolkata club not have the same luxury? The older clubs surely lack in most of the aspects vis-à-vis the Indian Super League franchises, but Das’s tendency to point out their incompetence in the departments where the AIFF has also failed miserably only goes on to show how important it is for the Federation to look at the mirror to understand and appreciate the efforts that go behind keeping a club operational for years.

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