Football in India is going through its worst times because
the ball is being replaced by money. Talking about money is easy. Writing is
not. They used to say, to cover a lie, one has to tell a hundred. This is going
out of rationalist realms.
The ISL, many thought, would change football in India. By
that we were meant to believe money would flow to Indian players. Honestly,
nothing like that has happened in the last two years. Money has flown. Instead
of cleaning Indian homes it has helped the rich be richer. Money in the ISL has
helped foreign players, foreign coaches and foreign support staff.
Make in India does not mean, get foreign players to play in
India. Make in India does not mean Indian coaches should have licenses to coach
and foreign ones can get away with it. Make in India does not mean foreigners
can flout rules- marquee players being appointed as coaches- while Indians have
to be taught rules.
Make in India means an Indian enjoying watching another
Indian play good football.
All of a sudden, football is being coined as a beautiful
game. What is beautiful, the money or the way a ball is kicked. Football
lovers, at least in Goa, have been sucked into a confusion that has been
perpetuated by FSDL.
Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) today reads more
like – Financially Sound Development Limited. The ball has got lost or muddled
with money. To make money is necessary. But, at the cost of sports? Have the
rich gone bankrupt on how to make more money, so suck on football? Many a times
when excuses are tabled as reasons, one gets sucked into a vortex that
eventually spills ill will.
If, to make money was the intent to help football AIFF or FIFA
should have been asked to grant ISL perennial permission. But don’t kill football by trying to eliminate
those who have nurtured football for years. Do atheists pray to God?
It appears that so much money has been washed down on AIFF
that the boss does not know grass, grain or gender. This is not a paradox; it
is a simple anecdote on money. Nuances do not come with money. In the end,
there are just two things we all know: 1- we all die;2- we all leave money
behind.
So, where do we go from here?
When the ISL started, many said it was too early to comment,
Let us give it time. Two years and out and it looks like ISL’s existence was
etched from long. It was never seen because it was laid on a cushions of money
.That money is spilling on the streets now just the way we used to wash our
linen in public. There is no difference. Money talks and man walks bare.
Unfortunately, football is being stripped now. Is that why
it is a beautiful game?
All of a sudden there is talk that India needs to grow in
FIFA rankings. Surely it needs but first, we have to grow as humans and the
best way of showing that is by leaving the ball with the foot. Simple. Let the
girls and boys play and as they play, they will grow. When they grow, they will
realise what they need to do with the money. Not I or you.
Boycotting a prize distribution ceremony or filing a police
complaint against a foreign player is not a crime. What would have happened if
Elano was an Indian? The reason forwarded was , with this precedent other
foreign players would think twice before wanting to come to pay in India. Mendy
came, months after the incident, and the lesson is clear– if the money is good,
any player will go anywhere. They came to India not for the love of FSDL but
for the love of the money. Plain simple truth understood by people who only
understand money.
Let us stop pretending.
What really exposed FSDL was the manner it went about laying
the sanctions on FC Goa. It was not the fines that exposed them but the docking
of the fines and the suspensions on two of the owners. They say , let the cat
out of the bag. In this case, the FSDL let out their ego and it when scurrying
around every house, every filed, every mountain and every waterhole available
in India. This was a family problem with pan Indian connotations. Poor football
in Goa was being soiled in a dirty game.
It is a game that none of us are interested in because what
matters to us is our rice and curry and how john passes the ball to peter and
how bruno scored. What the referee did and how we kept ourselves warm with a
tot of caju on our way home from a rain infested match.
Loud music is good. The screen effects are good. The
camaraderie is good. The pitch can be the best. Yet the players were far from
the best and yet we came not because football is a beautiful game but a game we
all love.
India opened its doors to FSDL. There was glitz; there was
glamour but there was little of football. Yet , we did not complain. And , the
door we opened is being shut on us all.
Football does not need FSDL. FSDL needs football because, in
life, we know the rich always want to be richer. If the air is too much, a ball
bursts. This time though, the foot will not feel the pain for the scars will be
on FSDL!
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