The Indian Super League: Will it be a success?

As International football comes into focus this week, a noteworthy sideshow of the Indian Super League (ISL) kicks off this weekend sparking interest the world over. Big spending, familiar names and glitzy player drafts aside, the coming two months will truly show if such a venture can have a positive effect on football in the region.

The league is run with a similar objective as that of its cricketing elder brother that came before it, the Indian Premier league. Its success was built on the back of a short-length league structure with international star names alongside the cream of the crop from the domestic Indian game. The key difference when it comes to football, is the quality of the Indian talent and the standard of their domestic league; the I-League which is considerably poorer.

The ISL will run through until Christmas, with the I-League taking off immediately after in a usual league calendar going forward. Domestic players, whose usual contracts lie with I-League clubs were shared out between the incoming ISL clubs in the summer with the inaugural “Domestic Player Draft”. While this proposes to be a rather incentive and career-enhancing pre-season change for those players involved, the likelihood of these players actually having a notable contribution to their new clubs’ success is slim.

India are currently ranked 158^th in the world, and 30^th in Asia and haven’t shown any real signs of progress in the last World Cup cycle. For those concerned about purely the state of domestic talent in the region, the ISL has its plus sides and its negatives. Unfortunately, the ISL organisers seem to have little concerns with the improvement of these players but playing them alongside previously top quality internationals for a few months can’t do too much damage to the quality of the I-League in the future.

Of course, eyes will be firmly fixed on the ISL. Once the inaugural tournament crown has been clinched, it’s still to be seen whether the crowds will stay around for the domestic league season kick off, the key may be if further money is pumped into the I-League. After a general dismissal of the new ISL project from the majority of I-League club sides, this is unlikely, as the two remain at odds with their two opposing plans for the future of Indian football.

The ISL sides themselves will be packed full of international players of varying quality which may squeeze the numbers of domestic players actually starting matches come the season kick off. Strangely in opposition to many other leagues in the region, the number of overseas players has a minimum barrier opposed to a maximum cap, an initial ruling that illustrates the organisers’ dream of playing to the capabilities of their imports ahead of the progression of Indian players.

It’s not just Indian players that have threatened to be shunned by the league, but also Asian players on a whole. Outside the “Marquee” players (highly paid star names, at least one attributed to each club), the ISL ran an “International Player Draft” to allocate a further 7 overseas players to each club. From this cohort of 56 only two were from Asia, and a further 3 were from Africa. The bulk were from Europe (7 Czech, 7 Spanish, 6 French) and South America (5 Brazil).

 

Despite its possible disregard to the production of national talent, the league has some very interesting aspects that set it aside of alternative league formats. The draft process has led to a harmonic dynamic being formed by each side, with greater individuality being garnered from the selection process. For example Kerala Blasters has a broadly “British” feel, managed by an Englishman (former England international goalkeeper David James), with a number of British and Irish players being brought in during the draft process.

 

Other clubs with significant ideology include Atletico de Kolkata, which as the name suggests has clear links to Spain due to their joint ownership with Spanish champions Atletico Madrid. They’ve brought in 6 Spaniards alongside their coach Antonio Lopez Habas, including former Liverpool players Luis Garcia and Josemi. Fiorentina are another European club who have bought into the league with Pune City, coached by Italian Franco Colomba and spearheaded by Juventus legend David Trezaguet.

 

From a purely aesthetic stand point, the build-up is interesting, former World Cup winner Marco Materazzi has been appointed player coach of Chennaiyin FC, while Alessandro Del Piero, Robert Pires, and Nicolas Anelka have all curtailed retirement for another season to kick off the league. Alongside the arguably “past-it” star names, the likes of Greek goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas and Brazilian’s Elano and Andre Santos proves that the ISL can attract some European based names that should be hitting their prime.

 

The true effect on the national landscape is yet to be felt; will India embrace football and go on to support the domestic I-League? Will the Indian domestic players improve playing alongside some of world football’s greatest names taking it on to the national stage? Will it ultimately be a flash in the pan, or a realistic off-season escape for star name footballers? All is yet to be answered, but as one Indian punter suggested recently, the standard of Indian football can’t get any worse.