OMG! Dont get me started on PLS. That stupid 6-week league wont last. Really when you do think of it the only difference between between this Premier League Soccer and the new Nagaland Premier League (a new league in the state of Nagaland) is the fact that PLS has old timers. Both leagues are based in respective cities, both are franchise based as well but in my opinion the Nagaland Premier League is better because they are focusing on the youth and they have a good model to insure they can run a league, focus on youth and gain money. PLS is all about money and that is it. I dont get why people believe in there promises. Didnt the AIFF also give us promises but then they fail. Who says the PLS wont do the same? Also what pisses me off the most is how this PLS gets international recognition in the United States, England etc and in every article I read from these places they all say that this league will be India's first league. NO! It wont! This is just another state league in India (3rd Division of India) but with some old players who wont last a season. I give this league a year.
Same thoughs here, many of my work collegues have noticed this league in the press and are saying that they are surprised that such a big coutnry like India never had a football league before!! Jesus, the amount of times I've told them otherwise. Also, this league has doen MTU of Thailand a favour, their coach Robbie Fowler has followed the money out. Fowler the coach of MTU didn't even turn up for the last two games of the TPL season staying in England. He knew he was leaving but didn't have the courage to tell anyone. He disrespected Thai football and the same could be done in India. These leagues are probably more harmful than good. Some players will of course complain about the conditions etc giving the who football system a bad name.
Exactly. I dont know why but I think the media thinks that this will be India's first league because of the wikipedia page I made for Premier League Shitters. I reread the page and saw nothing that pointed out that this was a state league and I blame myself for that. I have now changed the name of the league from Premier League Soccer to Premier League Soccer (West Bengal). Also another reason I think this is because I made the PLS article on 15 January 2012 and the next day really was when all the international media attention showed up. They obviously went on the page. Thought that it was a national league, saw we had the I-League but thought that was semi-pro and went with the idea of PLS being India's first league. Also that is sad about Fowler and that is another thing PLS is doing wrong. They are bringing in star players based on past teams and popularity but are excluding the "how much you care factor" or "how much you will complain". If Fowler wanted to go to say Major League Soccer he would be rejected. Sure he would have brought some popularity to MLS and the NE Revolution (my prediction of where he would go because they need a striker and the NE coach was teammates with Fowler) but MLS would have also looked at how much he would care and how much he will abide to what MLS tells him but saw that he would not do that and then reject him. Once again. PLS is a 1 year league and nothing else.
buy a team in the I-League and become it team proffesional maybe is a better inversion, to everybody, pay to this "stars" to play in a real team of a real club, is better that it friendlis between "the team of Ronaldo vs the team of Canavaro". I-League teams with Stars in >>>>>>>>>>>>> teams made from nothing based only in Stars.
Fero, If we start a new franchise league we should not use old stars. We should just select the best 32 players in the current I-League and allocate them through 8 teams. The rest of the players are just signed from a Free Agent Pool. Once the league gets better funded through TV and Sponsors then we can start getting some Canavaros etc.
IMG to prepare blueprint for I-League clubs MUMBAI: After hearing out the collective displeasure voiced by 12 of the fourteen I-League clubs at a meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, IMG-Reliance, the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) marketing partners have promised to come up with a blueprint to deal with the issues highlighted by club officials within three days. Upset about being denied television revenue and inadequate advertising of the League, officials from twelve clubs refused to sign the AFC licensing criteria unless the AIFF agreed to their demands of being allowed to function as a separate entity. Jefferson Slack, senior vice president (global development, football) IMG who is at the helm of football affairs in the country for a little more than a year was in Mumbai on Thursday and sounded confident that the issues of the clubs would be addressed soon. "We've heard the I-League clubs out and their grievances only seem reasonable. It's only fair that they make money considering the amount they are investing. We have promised to come back to them with a reply on Monday and we believe something could be worked out. We will come to them with a timeline of how to go about things," said Slack, a former CEO of Italian giants Inter Milan between 2000-04. While he agreed that there has been a problem with communication over the months, Slack refused to acknowledge that IMG-Reliance's presence has been negligible. "We've been doing a lot actually. We got a national and regional broadcaster for the I-League which is a big deal. We've done a comprehensive survey of stadiums too." When asked if the kind of buzz created by the Indian Football Association's (IFA) Premier League Soccer (PLS) concept has altered the AIFF IMG-Reliance plan of action, Slack denied it. _________________________________________________________________________________ Finally some good news. Cant wait till there plans are available to the public.
As someone who doesn't know much about Indian football - can someone please explain to me why India as a national team and its club football hasn't been more competitive? I know this new 6 week league isn't the first pro league, I know about the I-League. But from what I understand that India has a lot more football fans than people realize, and that the average player there does have good technical ability. So why hasn't this translated to better success? I followed their results in the last AFC Cup and tried to watch as much of their games as possible. Is it as simple that everyone is cricket-crazy and the AIFF is disorganized?
No, it's not because of cricket, because soccer is the most popular sport in a lot of important regions in India. The soccer match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal FC from Kolkata for example always draws around 120,000 people (!!) Some reasons why India didn't perform very well: * Corruption * A lot of poverty * No national league like MLS, IPL or A-League with franchises, this should be a huge improvement, something like this: 1 Mohun Bagan 2 East Bengal 3 New Delhi Heroes 4 Mumbai FC 5 Viva Kerala 6 Goa United 7 Pune FC 8 Bangalore SC Stadiums are okay, but Mumbai really needs a decent soccer stadium because Cooperage Ground is horrible.
Mate you need to do some fresh research. I will provide a detailed essay in Indian Football later when I have time.
I understand that poverty and corruption can be a deterrent to developing players. But there's countries in Western Africa and Central America that deal with the same issues and some manage to have solid to very good national teams. Obviously not having a national league can be a massive roadblock. However, and this is broadening the discussion, there are other Asian nations that have national leagues and still have national sides that struggle (Malaysia and China comes to mind). Its an interesting point that I've never really heard discussed.
Thus the reason why I said he should do some research, without trying to be mean of course. BTW Premier League Shitccer looks to be folding before any Indians sign. And you were right about Fowler drury. Lets now hope that the AIFF, IMG, and I-League clubs come up with a smart solution, which to me would be to make a separate I-League board of 20 members. 10 of the members will be reps from I-League clubs, 8 of the other members will be from IMG and the last 2 from AIFF. With the league now out of AIFFs hands they could focus on the grassroots, national team coach, and the 2nd Division. Of course though with grassroots I think that should be done by the State Associations and not the AIFF. The AIFF cant do everything.
Just heard that the Football Federation of Australia just revoked the Gold Coast United license which from what I heard is a good decision. Now this leaves me wondering. If the FFA can do it, why cant the AIFF kick out HAL and Air India and have made the I-League a 12-team affair which would have been more better. HAL dont pay most players and they have no care for the team and Air India dont pay period. This is what I like. BTW notice how the A-League is not separate from the FFA, yet here we want a separate league from AIFF. Ya, just shows you how dumb some of the I-League owners are.
keep an eye on nagaland premier league that begins on march2nd http://www.facebook.com/NPL.Online http://www.nagalandpremierleague.com/
MLS is separate from USSF (well there is some conflict of interest with MLS-SUM-USSF) EPL is separate from the FA Mexican teams just voted to split from the FMF. Both ways have their good and their bad. BTW, not paying players is usually a big deal, if the league does nothing the federation and AFC could sanction the league.
I know that MLS is separate from USSF. USSF just sanctions it like they do with NASL, USL Pro, USL PDL and so on. A-League though is still controlled mainly by the FFA. Again I dont trust the current I-League owners and there board members enough to say "OK, lets have the league and federation separate". It just wont work in my opinion. The Federation in my opinion have to much to do. They have grassroots, national team, league and other things to look after. I dont know why they dont just take advantage of the smaller state federations in India. Let them focus on the grassroots. Take one thing (major thing) off the AIFFs chest. As for national team and league. I think that the AIFF and IMG should focus on making a new system which still keeps the league connected with the Federation (almost like the A-League), this would need an MLS style salary cap system and a foreigner rule and a youth player rule (Each team can only have a roster of 30 which must be announced and approved by the AIFF at least 1 week before the beginning of the season. 10 of the 30 players must be below the age of 21. Only 4 of the 30 can be foreign with 1 of the 4 being Asian. The starting eleven can include at most 3 foreigners and must have at least 3 u21 players on the field. Also you must have at least 1 Indian player at forward) This should be announced at the AIFF-IMG and I-League meeting on April 20th. Also should be mentioned that day is that the league will be 10 teams and that only the top 10 stable clubs can be in the league AND that each city can only have AT MOST 2 clubs. (Hopefully this the 10 clubs will be East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Pune FC, Shillong Lajong FC, Aizawl FC, United Sikkim FC, Dempo SC, Sporting Goa, Delhi United FC, and Mumbai FC) with no promotion/relegation. Just expansion every 2-4 years. Also the AIFF need to make sure that they will be strict with the clubs. So say Mumbai FC does not go with I-League guidelines then they are automatically expelled. Also I think that in order to make money I think that the AIFF and IMG should work with the sponsors already invested in I-League clubs like Kingfisher Airlines, McDowel Beer, Infosys, Dempo Corp, Airtel. This will hopefully bring in more sponsors eventually.
Well who knows. The FFA and A-League may come to a compromise where the A-League owners will say that they believe that they can run the league separately without messing up as they have been around for 8 years but the I-League/NFL has been around sense 1996. MLS started its first season 96, J.League 1993, A-League 2004. Yet the I-League is way to behind these leagues 15 years later. I think they need to start the 2012-13 season on a fresh start with what I said in my last post about salary caps and all + the sponsors etc. And have the Federation and League connected still. Once the league is stable enough and the federation and owners (along with sponsors) think that they can all trust each other then they can become separate. For now, I dont think so. For example the Churchill Brothers owner in a former Crime Boss who complains every time his team is in 2nd and not 1st. Or the Prayag United owners who think that 1000 people in a 120,000 seater is fine and that they should only relocate within the state and play in a bucket seatless stadium INSTEAD of moving to Ranchi, Jharkhand and playing in a 35,000 ALL BUCKET SEAT stadium which just hosted the India national athletic games 2011. Also the stadium is within a sports complex with modern materials and 4 football sized pitches to practice on. And I dont have to explain the Air India, HAL and Chirag United owners. They are hell.
BTW to add to my statement on 10 teams with AIFF being more strict I think that they should also have a separate meeting with Mumbai FC about relocating to Nagpur. Mumbai FC is the Chivas USA of I-League. A team that was expecting good crowds but has not had any and that has good sponsor help (Essel Group, Adidas, etc). Also for the recent 2011 Nagpur Premier League (a 6 day tournament between 10 teams all local from Nagpur) managed crowds of 15,000 a game at the Yashwant Stadium in Nagpur. In the Final played at the Yashwant Stadium at 7pm there was a crowd of around 30,000-35,000 people. That was for a game between two local non-pro teams. Imagine what an I-League team with the sponsor support they have and the marketing power they have can do in Nagpur. As for Mumbai, they need a team, its the financial capital of India. I think the AIFF should sell the Mumbai I-League rights to any willing, trusting owner who will agree to make the team and play in the 2nd Division. Once Mumbai can prove to be a viable team Mumbai can come up.
Does India not have the ability to nationalize foreigners that play in its league for their national team? I notice all the top players in your league are foreigners that are certainly not going to play with their national league. Do they have no interest in representing India, or is there simply no ability under Indian law to nationalize them?
There is a High Court directive that states that those who are not Indian passport holders can't play for India. That rules out all the foeigners in the I-league and the thousands and thousands of the diaspora in Europe and USA.
Your statement is a little vague. Does that mean that they cannot apply for citizenship? Because if they can do that they will then be issued Indian passports that will allow them to play for the national team. Most importantly, does your laws allow dual citizenship because if they do, members of your diaspora can play for the team as well.
Dual citizenship is not allowed. Here is an example: Michael Chopra. One of the best strikers of the English Championship (2nd Division) was born in England and has Indian decent. He decided he wanted to play for India but because there is no dual citizenship he would have to give up his England passport. Then the problem with that would be that technically Chopra would not be English anymore and would play for a national team below 70 in the FIFA rankings. Because he plays for a team below 70 in FIFA that means he cant play in the league as that is the rule, players outside Europe have to play in a country over 70 in FIFA.
Let me clarify The law of the land allows for Dual Citizenship with select nations- mainly Western countries, China, Singapore, Malaysia and a few others who are willing to reciprocate. Dual Nationality is accorded to all those who wish to maintain their Indian nationality even after they take up the nationality for any of the above mentioned places. However, their descendants are not accorded Indian citizenship. They can apply for a PIO card (Person of Indian Origin) which is basically an infinite residence permit + clearance to open business in India. However, a PIO is not an Indian citizen and doesn't have the right to vote. What we have here is many PIOs who could play for India. I say could, because we've seen many other nations take descendants of their ex-nations to their NT. Eg - 2nd and 3rd generation Turks from Germany in the Turkish NT, same is the case with Algerian who grow up in France but play for Algeria etc. What the current High Court directive states is that a PIO will have to go through an ad hoc process to get his Indian citizenship. The process will not be expedited by any means just so that he/she can represent India. If any of the club level PIOs ( Michael Chopra, for example) want to play for India they'll have to meet the norms that the Government of India has on the matter of granting citizenship. I think that includes staying in India for some period of time. And since most of these PIOs have a club career in Europe, the chance of them staying in India is almost minimal and hence they can't get Indian nationality.