Indian football needs to get house in order first

BE CAREFUL WHAT you wish for, you might just get it.

- Tushar Bhaduri

After taking their plea to such high offices as the Indian government and FIFA, the Indian footballers may have realised that the belated start of the Indian Super League (ISL) season — planned for next month — may not be an unmixed blessing.

The financial and commercial realities that have come into play have resulted in franchises asking them to take a pay cut for the league to stay viable.

The league was supposed to get underway in September but was in a limbo due to the expiry of the commercial rights deal between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Reliance’s Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) on December 8. That a country with ambitions to host the Summer Olympics after a decade can’t even get a top division in operation wasn’t great for the optics. Something had to be done, sooner or later, and everyone, including the players, had to pay a price to get the show on the road.

With fewer matches and less revenue in a truncated season, several franchises have asked players to take pay cuts of up to 25%.

Now, a drop in wages is never pleasant. Many organisations ask employees to make some financial sacrifices to tide over difficult circumstances, be it an economic downturn or the Covid crisis. As far as ‘top’ Indian footballers are concerned, the popular perception is that they are overpaid in relation to their performance on the pitch. What else could explain India failing to stay in contention for a 24-team Asian Cup which will feature more than half of the membership of the continental confederation, and its FIFA ranking in freefall. But with a dearth of top-level homegrown talent and a limit on the number of foreigners on the roster and the pitch, the best in the country command wages of more than a crore a year, amounts which they would be unlikely to get if they plied their trade overseas.