Blog

Friday must have been astonishingly a great day for Sunil Chhetri. For us in India, I am sure, we will be keeping a tab on Kansas City Wizards in the coming days. Just like we did for Baichung Bhutia almost a decade back when he had turned out for Bury FC in England.

A day after this significant move by Chhetri to MLS, here comes a stunner from Delhi where Chhetri was born, brought up and made his debut with City Club. I took a stroll down the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and landed up at the Ambedkar Stadium where two local teams (New Delhi Heroes and Simla Youngs) were engaged in a I-League second division match. I thought the local association (DSA) would be all geared-up to cash in on the good news.

Let me recount the step by step account of what transpired on the Saturday afternoon at the Ambedkar Stadium, a day after Chhetri was officially presented by KCW in MLS.

On the dais, I found some DSA and some club officials caught up with some mundane discussions. One of them requested me to pull a chair and take a seat. Firmly ensconced, I began to observe them and their football talk. In the meanwhile, some more officials huddled near the VIP stand. Their eyes were fixed on the match. Down the dusty and uncleaned stairs, I noticed a top DSA official chatting with a laptop-wielded journalist.

After the discussion got over, he lifted his ageing body and he took a slow walk towards the VIP box. Then he shook hands with me and asked if I would require some refreshments. I said: “A lemon juice would quench my thirst.” Then he sat in the middle of his trusted comrades and started to scribble on a piece of paper. I took a chance and asked him what he was writing. “Nothing,” he smiled. The usual pen and paper work so ideally suited for these DSA officials. I wondered, if DSA was planning to do something for Chhetri’s achievement.

Enjoying the action on the field, none of these officials however had Chhetri on their mind. I don’t know whether it was their pretension. Or if they hadn’t browsed through the morning newspaper. Maybe, they are more keen on publishing their own DSA-centric events. So I guess they must have ignored the Delhi boy’s tie-up with Kansas City Wizards in the MLS.

Do they know David Beckham also play in MLS? Hmmm. Wait. Wait. Next time, I plan to throw a question at them: What does MLS stands for? I’m sure they would say “Amirican football.” But I promise, I won’t laugh. No matter how much you make an effort to teach them, these officials want to stay in the unknowing world.

Let me recount another hilarious incident. The I-League second division got inaugurated by a pot-bellied Delhi cop who tried his best to show his footballing skill by whacking the ball. You can expect such drab and dull inauguration with DSA. Still you cannot blame them because apparently it all happened in the presence of a newly appointed I-League CEO and a couple of other All India Football Federation (AIFF) officials. They too sipped the lemony juice alongwith me. Even munched some biscuits with good quality tea. Yet they lacked the qualitative idea on the promotion of Delhi soccer. They could have cash in on Chhetri’s joining a MLS team with congratulatory message spread all over the ground with his pictures (I hope they have them).

Alas, there were only lemon juice, tea and biscuits. Even Chhetri would laugh if he were told about this story.

Twice I had to dump the idea of going to the refurbished National Stadium to watch a World Cup. I was a tad disappointed. Not because I couldn’t watch a single World Cup game at home but Indian team’s early ouster was highly discouraging. I wanted to watch Jose Brasa-trained Indian team. I wanted to follow another national team coached by a foreigner. Post World Cup, the media has done lot of incisive and indepth reasoning behind Indian team’s failure in the World Cup. But apart from the technical aspect, none of the writers wrote about the ground realities.

Look at Australia. Just a couple of years back we shown the door to Aussie Ric Charlesworth. Back at the helm as Australia’s chief coach, this man has produced some outstanding result. Here we made a mistake. We should have allowed the expert (Ric) to do his duty as Indian hockey’s chief advisor. He would have done a decent job, I am sure. Here the Indian hockey administrators made a huge mistake.

Lot of people ask me the difference between Indian hockey and Indian football. Well, I tell them that Indian football has a structure in place unlike hockey. Soccer is played in schools, colleges and universities. In the gullies, in parks. There are so many national age-group football events organised by AIFF or even by state associations and academies. Many would still argue that in hockey you need astro-turfs while it is easy to kick a football on any pitch. But then given the presence of quite a number of astro-turfs, how many national events have been organised by our hockey federation. I remember, I saw a tattered astro-turf the last time I had visited SAI Centre in Calcutta.

Soccer has flourished in India because there is a definite plan. But above all, every affiliated unit is answerable to FIFA who has a strict guideline pertaining to soccer promotion. It doesn’t happen with FIH. In India, we have bungled everything. From resources to grassroot programmes and even our national championships. Besides, the faction war within the hockey administration and a myopic vision were enough to strangle India’s national sport.

Now contrast this with football. Though Indian football team hasn’t played in a single World Cup (I’m not going into the comparison with hockey and even with cricket World Cups because the qualification process in football is quite tough) even then I would say the game has got a well set-up plan. I am not sure if Brasa would be continued after Indian team’s eighth position finish in World Cup. But if the Spaniard is asked to go, then Indian hockey would again go down the drain. Look at Indian football. We have reposed faith on Bob Houghton ever since he has joined in 2006. That’s quite a good idea if you consider the long-term plan. The U-16 and U-19 teams are groomed by yet another revered coach Colin Toal. Houghton has been able to create a supply line which I guess augurs well for the future senior teams.

The previous post was flooded with lot of queries and reactions from the football fraternity. But few understood the message. Some thought I was criticising the AIFF. Well, it was definitely not a tirade against AIFF deal or a corporate tie-up. I only highlighted the corruption inside Football House. It wasn’t any figment of an imagination. So those who still couldn’t read the actual message, I request them to browse through it once again.

Shouldn’t we have some clarity on Indian football officials? There are plenty of unanswered questions which needs to be answered. We need to know who are the ‘brains’ behind Indian football’s development? Why the ‘outgoing’ secretary Alberto Colaco is still around despite resigning last June? Some say it is his ‘crocodile tears’ which has helped him win those AIFF members who wanted his removal after former president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi went into coma.

Ahhh. Crocodile Tears! In Hindi, we say magarmach ke aansoo. When I grew up , my mom had nicely explained me the right usage of the phrase. So here we are in the dubious world of Indian football federation where the dribble for power overtakes Indian football’s development plans.

The Goan, who was hated by couple of vice-presidents and members till a year back, now successfully has wooed them. Sending ‘rebel members’ with the Indian teams as managers on outstation tours is seen as a perfect move to keep them quiet. You oblige them and then staple their mouth. So it was nothing surprising to see him continue as secretary without any protests. I was told by one state asssociation secretary that he always wanted to tour with the Indian team to a foreign country. Poor guy, he was never in the good books of the AIFF secretary because he isn’t that ‘influential’ unlike others.

So Mr Colaco, we haven’t heard of the appointment of your new successor. What happened to the interviews which were supposed to take place last September? The entire football fraternity want an answer. If it is a democratic process, let not the candidates sulk and deny them a chance to appear for the interview which was advertised by your office in July last year. I was told that the earlier process has been scrapped and the burly Goan had been asked to ‘train’ a youngster for the coveted post. Interesting, isn’t it?

Last month, his Goan pal Joaquim Alemao was promoted as vice-president after spending a year as an ordinary executive committee member in AIFF. Wait. He uncorked one more surprise. The ‘outgoing’ secretary allegedly ‘planted’ Daman & Diu secretary Franco Miranda to the executive committee. For your information, Daman & Diu doesn’t participate in AIFF tournaments and they were sanctioned for not following the AIFF norms. So why did Mr Colaco gave him an entry? Simple. Some say he purposely did it because he wanted to stop his Goan rival Savio Messias from becoming an AIFF member.

While some officials have turned out shadow ‘agents’, here the secretary himself has been using his office to snub his rivals. We have a request, please don’t tarnish football and AIFF with your dirty politics. You guys can settle your old score outside the Football House, probably, over a mug of beer on Goa’s golden beaches.

Last year, I got an anonymous mail from someone who wanted to expose a big racket involving Indian football and that too right inside its headquarter at Football House. Almost a year later, the rumour have resurfaced again following the Panasonic deal with AIFF. There are strong rumours that one of the top AIFF officials has operated as a ‘shadow’ agent on behalf of Panasonic and in the process made good money. Last year, when I broke the news about this ‘shadow’ agent to AIFF’s all-powerful and power-centric secretary Alberto Colaco, he looked the other way.

How can a person who is engaged in bringing money to football federation, can actually engage in personal business ventures? Why they use their AIFF profile to build network for their future business expansion? Colaco, once again, looked the other way and smartly evaded the question. Actually, he didn’t want to answer because he himself has been partly responsible due to his faulty recruitment policies. No matter how much you make him understand, Colaco gives a damn.

In 2006, Colaco had appointed Satyajit Sadanandan. Football was not his qualification. He is an IIM Grad. Still he made it to the Football House because Colaco was hopeful that he would be an asset for Indian football as he will create marketing strategy for Indian football which was looking for financial support. After two years, Satyajit was promoting football but for his own company.

Colaco didn’t specify why he had recruited Satyajit, who didn’t have any knowledge about Indian soccer. Be its history or about the tournaments (surprisingly, he was made Director, Projects). Within two years, Satyajit ditched the federation and got engaged with his own business venture — sports marketing company based somewhere in Bangalore. Sounds interesting, isn’t it?

It was alleged that he even got hold of an influential FIFA official who was then looking after the south-Asian programme which included India as well. After the FIFA official quit his post, he found an ally in Satyajit, who was his India partner in a company which specialised in football consultancy. Some says that Satyajit and this AIFF official (‘shadow’ agent) is well connected and they work on a profil-sharing basis.

But who is this AIFF official who took a huge cut as the ‘shadow’ agent in the Rs 5 crore Panasonic deal? Why he gets this sort of leverage in AIFF? Is it morally correct to use AIFF contacts to reap personal benefits?

S Ravindra Bhat is not a sportsperson. Neither he is a sports administrator. But he has done something praiseworthy which not even the government couldn’t do in all these years. Well, Mr Bhat is a judge and is credited with a historical ruling which has considerably expanded the scope of the Right to Information (RTI) Act on sports associations.

Last week, the Delhi Hight Court has asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Commonwealth Games Organising Commitee (OC) to shed opacity and set up an office to disseminate information and depute a public information officer (PIO).
They were brought under the ambit of the transparency Act which I’m sure is expected to open the floodgates of pointed RTI queries directed against these sports bodies, seeking information about their management, grants and administration. The judgment will have an impact in injecting an element of accountability not just in IOA and OC, but in all the sports federations.

Meanwhile, our Sports Minister MS Gill is trying to make Indian sports clean. I’m not sure how far will he be able to succeed. But atleast he has forced federations to function in a transparent, dignified manner. Though the federations are autonomous bodies and most of them function in archaic, feudal manner yet the minister wants to them to fall in line with the “democratic principles of the country”.

That’s great news. But what about our football association?. Since this blog exclusively focuses on Indian football, I would be ask Mr Gill if he can bring about a change in All India Football Federation (AIFF).

In June last year, AIFF secretary general Alberto Colaco resigned from the post. The AIFF executive committee decided to hold interviews to select the candidate who would replace Colaco. Even the vacancy was advertised on AIFF’s web portal. Lot of candidates applied for the post. But only the “right candidates” were shortlisted for the interview. They even received their call letters. But surprisingly the interview never took place. Why? Well, that’s what we have been trying to figure it out.

It was learnt that Colaco, apparently, in his last ditch effort, has been trying to manipulate the big bosses at AFC and FIFA and use their influence. In one of the tours to Zurich alongwith the Sports Minister, the outgoing secretary had asked an important FIFA member to influence Gill. Now we know why AIFF hasn’t yet finalized the interview date and Colaco was happily given an extension by the executive committee which otherwise is happy to bow to the Goan.

AIFF’s secretary post is a paid one. But it assumes a lot of significance. Anybody would love to hold it for long. But Mr Gill’s call to democratize system has taken a beating. Once the vacancy is out and the candidates have been selected, why the AIFF has dillydallied on the interview date.

Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) was dismissed by IOA to bring in a fair, clean, new management. As Mr Gill said: “We can’t have a system where “there is no appeal, no daleel, no vakil”. Why the sports ministry, who has dolled a huge chunk of public funds to the federation, should not pull them up?

Thanks to the reports and TV visuals of the alleged molestation of an air-hostess by Okolie Odafe and two other footballers, there is a buzz around Indian football. From Tuesday (Jan 5) till Wed (Jan 6), TV channels and newspapers have indulged themselves in scooping gossipy stories around Churchill Brothers’ three footballers who were arrested at Mumbai airport on their way to Kolkata for the I-League match.

Nobody knows the truth. Odafe says he is innocent and was seen requesting the TV anchor to get his camera from Goa which the Nigerian claims has visuals of the entire incident. But first and foremost, was there any need to highlight the entire incident? Are these footballers did what former Haryana DIG SP Rathore did years ago? Are we not exaggerating the entire episode?

The truth is not yet out. So why put these footballers on the gallows. Particularly, Arindam Bhattacharya who seems to be so promising. I’m sure it would have an adverse effect on his career. Last month in Dhaka, Arindam single-handedly won the SAFF Cup for India in the final when he saved three penalties in the tie-breaker against Maldives. Did anybody notice his agility under the Indian goal? Did the media bother to interview him? Did that TV anchor, who I’m sure may not care about Indian football and footballers, profile this young goalkeeper? He didn’t. Neither the newspapers wrote any parody on the Indian footballers.

After all, gossips keep us happy. I’m sure everybody derive a strange pleasure from gossips. And media blows it up. It is some kind of a masala for them. Why don’t we keep these incidents a little low?

Just two days back in Guwahati, a young and upstart football team fought bravely before going down in the Fed Cup final against East Bengal. But nobody took any interest in Lajong or in East Bengal. Even during the Nehru Cup final last year, journos were more interested in Salman Khan, who was present at Ambedkar Stadium as Indian football’s brand ambassador, and didn’t bother about an Indian victory.

Let’s accept it. We are pretenders. We don’t care about any achievement. We stay awake for gossipy, raunchy news items. If that is the case, then why the media stayed quiet during all these years even after a young girl had committed suicide in Panchkula in 1993? Why are they now gunning for Rathore who should have been put behind bars long time back?

As far as these footballers are concerned, it is too early to comment on their unruly behaviour. No doubt, it was an unfortunate incident which may have tarnished even the image of the club (the sponsors have already decided to pull out). But it was too early to blow things out of proportion.

Let’s wait, till the verdict is out.