India's first attempts to regulate football began with the formation of the Indian Football Association, the IFA in 1893. The organisation based out of Calcutta, was integral to the formation of the modern AIFF-All India Football Federation in 1937, the governing body for football in India. AIFF's or rather India's greatest mark on the international football scene occurred on the 22nd of May,1950 in Rio de Janerio, Brazil when India was pitted alongside then reigning champions Italy, Paraguay and Sweden, India having qualified by default due to Philippines, Indonesia and Burma dropping out.
Citing Lack of practice time, Team selection issues, a long sea journey, Travel costs (Although FIFA agreed to bear a majority of it) and an insistence on playing barefoot, the AIFF made sure the Indian football team never made it to Brazil. Then Captain and Indian football legend Sailendranath Manna claimed the barefoot excuse was just a story to cover-up the AIFF's disastrous decision as FIFA had already banned barefoot play after the 1948 Olympics. As India's current footballing generation reflects, India could never come that close to the football World Cup ever again.
Post-1950, a string of medals in the Asian Games and Olympics ensured that football interest existed in the country. However during the 70's, 80's and 90's, amidst political,economical and social turmoil in the country, football in India reached its lowest levels. To revive the fledgling sport, The National Football League comprising top Indian football clubs was inaugurated in 1996. However the professionalism of the sport was never achieved due to lack of ticket sales, failure to sustain a clear fan base and partly due to the success of Cricket, India's so-called religion. The league ran into financial losses and a decade of decline followed.
India's Premier football competition, The I-League was launched from the ashes of its predecessor in 2007. It restored a sense of parity to Indian football. On 9th of December 2010, The AIFF signed a 15-year, Rs.700 crore deal with Reliance Industries-IMG group which gave all exclusive commercial rights to the corporate group to create a new football league. Their Brainchild, The Indian Super League was founded in 2013. The tourney brought about a phenomenon to the Indian football scene never seen before. The corporate group followed a pay-to-play policy and pumped in money for better marketing and management, something India's legacy clubs could never do before.
Remember the ISL is NOT a FIFA approved league. It is a franchise based football tournament like the upcoming Premier Futsal. The I-League is still India's premier football league as acknowledged and approved by FIFA. That means the winner of I-League and NOT the ISL qualifies to the AFC Champions league. On May 17th of this year, the AIFF together with their corporate partners presented a proposal to 'merge' both the leagues. They implied ISL being made the top-tier of Indian football with the I-League ad its lower divisions under the football pyramid.
Fair Enough. The ISL generates more revenue from ticket sales and marketing, has a sizeable yet still an infant following which will only get better in the years to come. The Catch is, the AIFF decides to do away with relegation/promotion from/to the ISL. Rash. Reckless. Can they do this? What about India's legacy clubs? Not all the clubs can afford the pay-to-play model of the ISL.
The AIFF has to explain how in the world can a two-year old league bulldoze its way past those clubs with rich history, responsible for all of India's footballing achievements, with no opportunities to climb up? No promotion? Why not the AIFF just say 'Whoa, Sorry for the inconvenience. There is promotion of course'. Thing is that's simply not possible. Remember the deal AIFF signed with IMG-Reliance? A clause in the contract states the new league will have no promotion/relegation. Wow.
