The ISL should take a cue from the Chinese Super League (and IPL) and reduce its foreign-player cap

Working towards President Xi Jinping’s goal of becoming a football powerhouse, China has entered the football world full of intent, desire and a lot of money. From Chinese businessmen taking over shares of European clubs to the Chinese Super League throwing a ridiculous amount of money at international pedigreed players, it’s clear the world’s most populated country wants to make a mark in the beautiful game.

Chinese clubs have signed fading superstars such as Carlos Tevez, Asamoah Gyan, Ramires and Esquivel Lavezzi for a ludicrous amount of money, but these acquisitions weren’t really surprising. It has become routine for players at the twilight of their career to go and “experience something different” or, in other words, make £610,000 every week. However, when the likes of Graziano Pelle, Oscar, Teixeira and Jackson Martinez decided to switch ships, that indeed proved to be astonishing. Solely because the lure of playing for top European clubs and featuring in the Champions League was always thought to have been more desirable than earning a lot of money despite the shelf life of an athlete being quite limited.

Quite evidently, it also caught the eye of the Chinese Football Association, which has been alarmed by the spending. Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to host a Fifa World Cup but, significantly, he also wants to win one. Winning a Fifa World Cup would require Chinese players to flourish, something the clubs may have forgotten in the chase for global stature.

The Chinese FA recently made a statement mentioning that the foreign footballers allowed to play in each match will be reduced from four to three per team. This has been perceptibly done to reduce excessive spending by clubs, which is said to have “distorted the global transfer market and added to fears about capital outflows”, but importantly this has also been done to as boost development of domestic players and Chinese football.

What India is doing wrong

This statement is a very critical assertion made by the Chinese FA and is something that should be taken into account in India as well. The Indian Super League, which is three years old, and claims to be doing a lot for Indian football, allows it’s franchises to field six foreign players on the field at any given time, a number that seems exceedingly unreasonable given the desire or claim of the League to develop football in India and deliver a push towards the country’s rise in the sport. Effectively, in the ‘Indian’ Super League, there are more foreigners on the pitch per team, than Indians.

The ISL has another rule that has time and again proved it brings nothing major to the table. Each club is famously required to sign one “marquee player”. This player must be a famous footballer, someone who would have played for a major club and featured in the main international tournaments. In the desire to fulfil this criterion, clubs have often sign retired players whose fitness levels are close to abysmal. While these players help a little in raising the league’s reputation in the world, they often make the team sluggish and are mostly unable to bring something significant to the on-pitch performance.

The first season of the league saw Delhi Dynamos fare much better without the services of Juventus legend Alessandro Del Piero. Coach Harm van Veldhoven’s reluctance to use the player was evident and when he gave the forward few minutes. It led the media to view the entire episode as the manager having a rift with the star player. At least in the case of China, the likes of Alex Teixeira, Oscar, Hulk and Martinez have a long way to go before hanging up their boots and can genuinely raise the quality of football in the league.

Brazilian legend and FC Goa coach for three ISL seasons, Zico, remarked in a press conference last year, “There are more foreigners than Indians [in the ISL], which is not helpful. There hasn’t been a lot of improvement in these three years. Indian players need to be more in the starting XI.”

How India will benefit

The move to reduce the foreign player cap will benefit the Indian Super League. Seemingly, the biggest ambition of the people behind the league is for it to create a buzz at the world-stage. This will only transpire if Indians perform well at an international level or – and this is far-fetched – catch the eye for their performances and are then recruited by foreign clubs. For this to happen, more Indian players need to be filling up the starting XI of the teams.

The third season of the ISL showed there are some fantastic players in India. Rowllin Borges, who played for NorthEast United, or CK Vineeth, who featured for Kerala Blasters, are two such names. However, it was painfully obvious that a lot of young Indian players were left on bench, while obscure foreigners filled their spots. There is a serious need for Indian players to be used in key positions in the team. Much more was expected from NorthEast United last season as the Highlanders have been one of the clubs who have always promoted Indian talents. When they signed Jerry Mawihmingthanga and Lallianzuala Chhangte from DSK Shivajians’s Liverpool International Football Academy, it felt like the young Indian starlets had found an ISL club tailor-made for their needs as youngsters. The duo, however, were restricted to one cameo substitute appearance apiece, the entire season.

Indian football or the Indian Super League has a long way to go before it can match Europe’s top leagues, or even those in Japan, Australia or USA in terms of quality. However, a rule limiting foreigners to at least four – like in cricket’s Indian Premier League – would prevent teams from simply buying their way to the top, which is the thinking behind the move by the Chinese FA. In India’s case, it would also mean allowing more Indians to play football with some quality players, improving their game and subsequently helping the ISL be more than just a retirement home for “marquee players”.