by Harmit Singh Kamboe

National League 2006/07
18 rounds, 10 teams, 2 relegations and 1 champion. Those are some of the cold numbers from India's long running National Football League's Division 1. But behind each number, this season is a great story.

Let's start with the winners, Dempo SC. Dempo turned up the tempo and zoomed ahead in the points tally towards the end of the league. However, it would be unfair to think of them as a team that saved their best for last. Three key statistics tell the whole story - Dempo finished the season with the maximum number of wins, scored the maximum number of goals scored this season and had the best goal difference amongst all the teams this season. And all of those reasons are good enough for Dempo to be deserving winners. For Dempo, the next frontier is their performance in next years AFC Cup, where they will represent India.

Phagwara's JCT was the surprise packet. Of all the teams, they really turned in a stupendous performance after the NFL re-commenced following a break winning eight of their nine matches in the second leg. Had JCT been more focused from the start of the season, they could have had their best chance to win the league title since winning the inaugural NFL. Of all the teams, JCT has the hardest task in the coming Pro League as they could have to replace their attacking trio of Renedy Singh, Sunil Chetri and Chidi Edeh. Chetri's tremendous goal scoring proves that Indians are as good as many of the imports that play as strikers in the league. All the Indians need is exposure and training.

Mahindra United, who were doing fine with about 5/6 games to go in the season suddenly lost steam. Some of it might be due to the fact that during that stretch of the season they had to play five games in nine days and the Mahindra team management had every right to be upset about that. But history will remember the 2006/07 NFL season as something that Mahindra's let slip through their fingers. For now it is back to the drawing board for them. For a team with Asian level ambitions, they need to be far better performers in the coming Pro League. But at least on the Asian level Mahindra United for the first time reached the knockout stage of the AFC Cup with quarterfinal matches scheduled for September 2007.

If JCT were rejuvenated after the break, Churchill Brothers SC managed to lose their momentum. For a young team, it was a cruel twist of fate, to have the league come to a halt when they had their mojo going, but to be a winner, you have to able to turn it on, when the situation demands it. Nevertheless, the young brigade at Churchill Brothers (Moroccan coach Karim Bencherifa included) has sounded a warning to many other star players and their teams. They have proven that a bunch of over the hill, over paid stars (Indian or foreign) are no match for a young, hungry and determined set of youngsters. As Indian football fans it would be interesting to see, how the team fares in the new season and if it is able to repeat its performance.

Of the three Calcutta teams, East Bengal Club came out as the best of the lot, but still disappointed in the end. It had a brief opportunity to stake a claim to the league title but could not keep the momentum going. However, East Bengal plan to be very aggressive in making acquisitions in the player transfer market and they could actually be a strong contender in the Pro League.

Mohun Bagan's strike force of Baichung Bhutia and Jose Ramirez Baretto failed to deliver any value out of the estimated Rs. 1 crore (Rs. 10 Million) price tag for the two of them. A historic club like Mohun Bagan also shuffled coaches like a deck of cards during the season, four in total, surely a new Indian record for a season. For a club of the stature of Mohun Bagan to concede more goals than they scored says it all. Still they did India proud with their results on the Asian stage in the AFC Cup.

Air-India and Sporting Clube de Goa played well in patches but were part of the also rans. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited SC lived up to the prediction of lasting just a single season in the top tier. By finishing at the bottom of the heap, they will be back in Division 2. To see Mohammedan Sporting Club being relegated must send some tremors in the Calcutta football establishment. It remains to be seen how the club responds to the pressures of playing out of the limelight of the NFL's Division 1. They have made all the right moves so far by hiring Shabbir Ali and stating that they wish to focus on young and upcoming players rather than established stars. But then, being in Division 2 once cannot really afford to hire any established stars either.

With Viva Kerala and Salgaocar SC joining the survivors of the Division 1, the next season promises to be an even more promising one as more teams could be evenly matched.

There have been reports in the press about AFC and FIFA recommendations about expanding the number of teams in Division 1. While this does make perfect sense as more teams will help spread football to different parts of the country, one must also take a look at the numbers. When 6 of the top teams have a goal difference of 0 or worse, there is clearly a dearth of talent. An expansion of teams without addressing the quality issue will not result in making new fans or bring existing ones to the stadium. And can we really have a vibrant Division 1 without a vibrant Division 2? Those are some of the things we will examine in further columns at IndianFootball.Com

Other Points Of Interest:
The AIFF deserves to be congratulated on the following initiatives taken during the current season:
1. Calling the league to a halt for key India level games and juggling the schedule around when Mahindra's had to play a home game in Goa for their AFC campaign. THE AIFF show flexibility and maturity in handling the situation and full credit to them for that.
2. Announcing well ahead of time for the current season who the 42 players are that will/may be called upon for national duty. The clubs now know the risk of national duty versus the club duty for each player. Well done AIFF.
3. Introduction of the Pro League and some guidelines on professionalising the clubs, in a phased manner and ensuring that the state and local leagues do not take place during the Pro League.
4. Circulation of a draft player contract - The AIFF has shown tremendous foresight by posting a draft/model contract on its website so that there is consistency and transparency in the player recruitment process. From what we can tell so far this is a proposed/draft contract and it is not mandatory that this contract be the exact one that clubs use. Players and clubs have complete freedom to negotiate the finer points independently with each other. Criticism has already come from the Football Players Association of India on certain points.

As Indian football fans, we hope and pray that these are the first steps that Indian club football will take to become more organized and professional.

But as always there are some other tasks they could have also done. Two such tasks are listed below:
1. Travel Arrangements - The AIFF has a far more higher responsibility than to act as a travel agent for the league teams. It should start doing what the AFC does for the AFC Cup teams which to pay the teams a flat fee for travel and arrangements and leave that task to the individual teams. For a country like India, of course, different zones might have to be created depending on how far the teams are traveling.
2. Hold the matches on weekends or week day evenings - It is laughable to read about Division 1 games being played on week days during the afternoon. Does the AIFF expect a working person to take time off from their job to go and see match. What is even more galling is that Zee Sports, an influencer of some size has not managed to persuade the AIFF to see common sense on this issue.
A league that only has 10 teams that will play all of their matches in 5 key geographical areas (Calcutta, Mumbai, Goa, Ludhiana and Kochi) in the coming season, needs to gets its act together and get floodlights going. And then of course it needs to ensure that mice and stray dogs do not make us good material for cheap tabloids and has happened in the recent past.
3. The Threat of hasty expansion - No one in India's football fraternity doubts that the NFL at 10 teams is too small and needs to be expanded. But there has to be a process for this expansion in place. Simply bumping up some of the teams in Division 2 would be a recipe for spreading mediocrity and perhaps further subjecting football fans to low quality football in India. Such an expansion will only harm Indian football.

A more prudent way might be to work on the concept of "expansion franchises" where corporate India's new found enthusiasm for football is used to bring football teams to cities that do not have any Division 1 presence yet.

This is a heaven sent opportunity for the AIFF to "award" franchises if you will to cities like Pune, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Guwahati etc, where there is a substantial population but no football teams. The entry level requirements on such teams can be higher in terms of infrastructure and staffing. Since gate receipts are not a major source of revenue of clubs anyways, the cost of setting up a team in a tier II town is much lower.
But franchises could also be set-up in football markets like Delhi and Bangalore, who are not represented regularly at the top level.