A Review of the 11th National Football League

One more edition of the National Football League has almost come to an end. Congratulations to the ultimate winners DEMPO Sports Club from Goa. The race for the title was a three way contest between Dempo SC, Mahindra United and East Bengal Club, finally it just fizzled out with first East Bengal dropping from the race and later Mahindra United for Dempo to be declared the Winners. Dempo could have wrapped the National League in the earlier matches but fumbled and finally managed to wrest the title. Mahindra who were going neck to neck with Dempo just could not keep up with the pressure and ultimately caved in their crucial match with East Bengal. As for East Bengal they just strutted and fell way back from the title hunt when they lost to their traditional rivals Mohun Bagan.

The biggest disappointment in this National League were the Federation Cup Winners Mohun Bagan and Runners-up Sporting Clube de Goa. What a fall it was for these two giants of Indian football. Just before the National League these two clubs were fighting for the top honours for the Federation Cup and then the slump. Mohun Bagan were one of the favourites to win the National League after they signed the two lethal strikers Baichung Bhutia and Jose Ramirez Baretto, who failed miserably to live up to this reputation. Sporting Clube de Goa on the other hand could not perform consistently and in the process just tottered and moved ahead from the relegation zone.

Churchill Brothers and Phagwara's JCT were the two teams which played to their full potential and created a scare among the top teams and richly deserved to be among the top four. Air-India also began well during the first half of the League but later on slumped in their performance. Mohammedan Sporting Club had gone on a signing spree by grabbing the top players from East Bengal and Mohun Bagan before the commencement of the season, but all these players could not jell as a team and were relegated from the National League. HAL the other team to be relegated had a forgettable outing in this National League as they were left to fend for themselves when they were pushed into the league at the last moment by the AIFF as a replacement for the Tata Football Academy.

The AIFF has put forth their proposal to commence the Professional League from this year but still there is a doubt as to what will be the final composition of teams that will play in this Professional League. The AIFF must make itself clear and announce the same before the commencement of the Transfer season. This dilly dallying by the AIFF during last season did not help HAL's cause as they had prepared a team for the Second Division and all of a sudden they found themselves pushed into the National League giving them no time to prepare themselves nor a chance to sign foreigners of some reputation or to go in for the cream of Indian players. This was evident in the final result when they finished at the bottom of the table.

Once again as in all the previous editions of the National League we find that the major contribution of scoring goals has been by the foreigners. This is a bad sign for Indian football as Indian players find themselves no where among the goalgetters and when it comes to the International matches we end in a drought of goals and our ranking in World football starts sliding downwards. The only Indian player during this National League who was on par with the foreigners was Sunil Chetri from JCT, apart from him there was no sign of any other player who would get goals for his team. Baichung, Bruno, Vijayan were the heroes for their teams and also for the country, now this talent has dried up after the introduction of the National League and it is high time the AIFF does something to arrest this trend at the earliest.

Coming to the National Football League we have come to the end of it, eleven in all and now it will be known as the Professional Football League. If a question mark is put on whether the National Football League has helped in raising the standard of the game we can fairly say it has not. On the contrary it has helped the clubs and the players by raising the financial benefits and the comforts but the game in on a downward slide. Will the commencement of the Professional Football League help in the improvement of Indian football only time will tell and till then let us wait with folded arms for the outcome.