NFL pools could be AIFF's new moneyspinner

Our football is more commercialised than professional. At least today, despite the efforts initiated almost 20 years ago to give it the sheen of professionalism. But the commitment and approach of the All-India Football Federation have hardly been encouraging. At almost every stage they have been lackadaisical. The result: fond hopes have been turning into mirages.
At times, however, they have not been complete mirages. Oases occasionally have emerged to give tenuous sustenance for faith in better things. The National Football League is a case in point.
The leavening of our leading clubs with foreign players was expected to be a shot in the arm. This has not been borne out fully. But there is no gainsaying the first five NFL winners have owed much to their foreign stars. The other clubs have sought to take a leaf out of the champions' book, at least in signing on players from Africa, South America and Asia. The failure of Air-India and State Bank of Travancore, in particular, and of Border Security Force and their relegation is cited as the folly of total reliance on Indian players.
The investment in foreigners to remain the ‘elite dozen of NFL' has permeated to the extent that only Punjab Police, which is at the bottom of the current NFL with four points from 13 games, has a team exclusively of Indian players.
There is no blinking the fact that these foreign players dominate the clubs and the NFL itself. However, they have made the NFL this season more competitive than in previous seasons. Leader at the end of the first leg with 22 points from 11 games, Mahindra United, was not so far out in front as to be wary of only two or three rivals in its quest for the title.
It has started the second leg on the wrong foot. Defeats in two of its scheduled six away matches and the two points it dropped at home to inaugural champion Jagatjit Cotton and Textiles Mills, i.e. picking up of a solitary point from the nine at stake, has caused the slight trace of euphoria yield place to anxiety in the Mumbai team's camp.
Mahindra United's anxiety would be aggravated by its Goa and Kolkata rivals having more profitable encounters. So much so the halfway stage leader has slipped to the middle of the table. Though the trio from Goa - Churchill Brothers, Salgaocar and Vasco - have better second-leg schedules.
Mohun Bagan has a more daunting one, with away games against Churchill Brothers and Salgaocar - it lost 1-2 to the third Goa team in Margao. But the race is far from over. The remaining rounds of the NFL should keep fans on edge.
Maybe this would be hindsight. But such a scenario - the keenness of the competition from the midway stage - and the suspense-filled climax could give football sponsors, promoters and the AIFF food for thought. It would be a future commercial enterprise, if set up and organised professionally, that will help our football financially.
The proposal may have been difficult of execution in our football in earlier years. But with a league organised nationally, it should be possible to channelise the game's following to build a successful pools competition on lines similar to what obtains in Europe.
Though there is some uncertainty about the exact date of the start of the NFL, once it gets under way the programme, dates and venues are certain. This should facilitate the entire operation and gain a windfall for the game. Remember the pools contributed much to the financial health of European football. They still do, though they have overshadowed by television deals in recent years.