What are the causes for this situation ? Lets see
Once I heard a story that a famous East Bengal footballer, after a very successful football season, was cajoled by his friend, a Mohun Bagan player to ask for a hefty raise in the upcoming season. The player mastered enough courage and went to meet Late Jyotish Guha, but, just by looking at his face, all his bravery evaporated. All he could ask was some ‘more days leave’ so that he can join the club stronger. Jyotish Guha was no fool, he understood immediately and since he was happy with the performance, allowed the extra leave with a reward of Rs.200/-. The player left beaming with joy. Those times, India played Olympics, won Gold at Asian Games, won Mardeka and was a real power in Asia level.
Cut to the present. Our player’s demand is shooting through the sky, India’s FIFA ranking going down the drain, from one of the top Asian teams to a languishing 26th rank in Asia and a lowly 150-160 bracket overall.
What are the causes for this situation ? Lets see :-
- where would the children play ? Are there enough fields or open spaces ? No. They are all taken away, either to build shopping malls or residential complex. Result :- if children cannot play, where from the footballers come ?
- Parents want their children to be Sachin Tendulkar, rather than Bhaichung Bhutia. I was surprised to see children playing cricket even in the hills of Sikkim where I expected children to take up football, modeling Bhaichung.
- The dearth of dedicated people like Bagha Som, Amal Dutta, Achyut Banerjee, Khokonda and many like them, who toiled to find gems. Nowadays, our ex-players either strive to become coach of the top 3 clubs or choose the safer seat of ‘expert commentator’ in different TV channels. We hardly see our ex-players coming up with real good probable’s and paving their way of success with proper guidance. People are working without any help in villages, small towns, without any help from anybody. If the clubs take them under their wings, they may get good players in 1-2 years without setting up their own academy and spending money for that.
- Robin Singh is an exception. He comes from a well to do family. Most of the footballers come from either middle or lower middle class, and, about 60% to 70% come from within 50 kms of Kolkata, but, we hardly see footballers coming up from so called big schools of Kolkata, some of them having all the facilities and have students who have good physique, get enough nourishment, but lacks the basic intention of making it big.
- Increase in the number of clubs at the national level. JCT or Mahindra have closed their shop, but United Sikkim, Royal Wahingdoh, Pune FC, Pailan Arrows, Prayag United, all are looking for footballers, some through screening, some pouring money. Suddenly there is a void in the market, of quality footballers, and you see the A-grades in the range of 70 lakhs to > 1 crore. B-grades 50 lakhs to 70 lakhs and C grades 40-50 lakhs. Even the players, who are mostly confined to bench and hardly gets any chance in big teams, demands big when they move on.
Some of the clubs have signaled that they are going slow this year, unable to increase their budget and thereby looking for other options. The question is, the clubs which are spending big now, can they sustain it ? The answer is NO. The market is volatile, with factors like decrease of the value of rupee, increase in fuel price, change in climate etc., recession like situation will come again and again and force the sponsors to either make their purse tight or make it smaller. Some teams have already lost their sponsor or have got signal to cut the budget. How these teams would survive the sudden splurge of demand from the players ?
By going to the roots. There were several under height tournaments, school tournaments, college tournaments organized by people at their own expense or even by IFA. Many of these tournaments have stopped. These are the source from which players are ‘spotted’, if IFA cannot, let the clubs make a forum and start them. Let them have an understanding of how they would take the players, if chosen. There are several people who are coaching at the village level or town level, let the clubs extend their support to them. Its always cheaper than setting up an academy. East Bengal has already opened a football school, let it spread its wings to the local clubs and schools which have got facilities. Let them start with the International schools at Kolkata which have their own big grounds where children from well to do families, who are well nourished, have enough protein, vitamins, iron (and maybe more fat than required), have a go on the ball.
The initial intent would be to bring a large number of children under the umbrella. Its like finding gold from dust, but atleast you will get 1 or 2 golden boys and 4-5 silver linings if the system starts working.
Its high time the clubs start from the scratch, otherwise, if this disturbing trend continues, where a player is paid 8 times his value (as reported by an established news paper), the clubs would cease to exist in near future.
