How ISL can save India's dying heritage football clubs

Football in Kolkata on the vast green stretch called the "Maidan" seems to be losing its sheen. Iconic clubs like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting - two of which have existed for more than 100 years and one nearly so - have started to fade away slowly.

While this isn’t news, the question is why are these clubs of Kolkata — once known as the Mecca of Indian football — fading into oblivion?

What is going wrong and who is responsible? Let's start with Mohammedan Sporting — once a big name in India football. Its fate in the current scenario makes for an interesting study.

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The club which was once graced by players like Mohammad Habib, Mohammad Akbar, Prasun Banerjee, Bhaskar Ganguly, Gautam Sarkar — all stalwarts of Indian football — today neither has the infrastructure to produce stars, nor does it have the inclination to move forward.

Mismanagement and lack of funds has seen young stars shying away from signing for the club and the result has been that one of the top three clubs in the city is now a shadow of its glory days.

But Mohammedan Sporting isn’t the only club that has reached saturation point. Mohun Bagan, the national club of India, has had no sponsor for the last two years and day-to-day needs are tough to meet. Even the players' salaries have been kept on hold on a few occasions and the future seems bleak.

The only club which has somehow managed to hold its own despite all the problems is East Bengal. But then, for how long?

These clubs, which still have huge fan following, have never tried to cash in on the craze for football in the city. They have had no marketing strategies and have not even tried to learn from their foreign counterparts. Earning from gate money and merchandise sales has never been a part of the plan.

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Agreed that football in the "City of Joy" is more about sentiments than anything else; East Bengal-Mohun Bagan derbies bear testimony to this, but professionalism can’t take a beating in this time and age. Interestingly, what these clubs have failed to do is the sole reason why a club like Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) is a huge hit with the youth of Kolkata. So where is the difference? Marketing.

While these old clubs never saw the need to cash in on their fan base by selling jerseys of players and club memorabilia, ATK has done just that.

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ATK has managed to hit the nail on the head and planned its success story where the heritage clubs have failed. And the result is that today an ATK jersey is more popular than that of say, Mohun Bagan or East Bengal. Instead of targeting established industries for funds, the older clubs ran after the chit fund-based companies like Saradha Group and Rose Valley which led to legal wrangles.

Moreover, it has also resulted in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) freezing the accounts of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. There are several reasons for the debacle that these older clubs of Kolkata have been facing, starting from poor administration, lack of professionalism to fund crunch.

Year after year, club elections are not held citing some issue or the other. Even when they have been held, these stage-managed elections have brought back those who are already in power. Red-tapism has killed the growth of football in Kolkata.

However, more than the same faces occupying the same seats, it is the lack of able administrators that has seen the graph of the old clubs dip with every passing day. Then there is the obvious political interference which is a hindrance for a non-political person who may want to come on board and help.

Growing up in Kolkata, football matches at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan meant a carnival. But now, who cares?

Football fans would rather watch a Premier League or Champions League match today. With the Indian Super League (ISL) - which is much more professionally managed - making an entry into an untapped market and each franchise having a budget of around Rs 30 crore, only time will tell if these old clubs which once enjoyed a monopoly will be able to sustain the constant heat of competition. Well, the truth is that rather than criticising the marketing genius of the ISL, it is time that the clubs realise their own follies.