Brazil friendly a song-and-dance show to distract audience

One can imagine the task confronting the five-time world champions when they face a team that was nowhere close to qualifying for an expanded AFC Asian Cup, with no certainty about when the domestic league will take place.

It speaks of the farcical situation in Indian football that the team with the most glorious history in international football is paying a visit to the country whose acquaintance with the Beautiful Game is renewed once every four years.

A country where one of the teams in the top division pulls out a couple of months before a new season – though the dates, number of teams, broadcasters and a whole lot of other issues are nowhere close to being finalised.

A country whose football federation, instead of getting its house in order and taking care of basic issues, thinks it’s worth its time to consider changing its own name. Of course, changing the name of a city is much easier than ensuring that storm drains don’t overflow during monsoons and the roads don’t have potholes.

Brazil, even though they are not the force at the world level they once were and stuttered through their recent campaign in the United States – has a considerable following in India. It’s more to do with a romantic and nostalgic image of the Samba boys than with anything they have done recently. In fact, since winning their most recent World Cup in 2002, they have made the semifinals just once – on home turf in 2014, when they were humiliated 1-7 by eventual champions Germany, before losing 0-3 to the Netherlands in the third-place playoff.

Bringing the Brazil team to India at this juncture is akin to organising a song-and-dance show to distract the people of a constituency without basic facilities like health, sanitation, education and proper roads. It can be seen as a cynical attempt at headline management to ensure there’s something positive to report. The match will take place in a vacuum of sorts, with what happens before or after it hardly anyone’s concern.

Trivial matters

Some India players, while being excited at the prospect of sharing the same turf with the famous canary yellow jerseys, have expressed concern that they would go into the friendly without any matches under their belt.

How ungrateful of them! Here’s a federation – and those who are footing the bill for this marketing coup – bringing the highest-ranked team ever to set foot on Indian soil, and the players are worried about such inconsequential matters as a domestic league and match practice.

The result of the game between a team ranked five in the world and one in 138th position is hardly anyone’s concern and it’s likely that the full house at the Salt Lake Stadium would be cheering vociferously whenever a goal is scored against the nominal ‘home’ team.

If some players, because of the lack of match play in the lead-up to the game and taking the field before they are in prime physical shape, get injured subsequently, it’s of no concern because – let’s face it – who is bothered about the domestic league, if it takes place at all, and other routine international games.

Jamshedpur FC, the Tata Group-owned franchise that has pulled out of the Indian Super League, has cited ‘strategic’ reasons for the decision and not financial constraints. It doesn’t explain why a call that had been in the making for a while should have taken the players by such surprise. Surely, it could have been indicated to them well before than when they were participating in the Durand Cup. Having a sword dangling on their future, and financial, prospects isn’t the best backdrop while playing a tournament. Also, why JFC was part of the deal when the commercial rights of the ISL were handed over to a consortium of the clubs last month hasn’t been answered.

What JFC didn’t say was laid down explicitly by some of the other ISL teams, who said there’s hardly any returns in running a domestic football club. If one of the biggest conglomerates – with a history of involvement in the sport – can’t do so, there’s hardly any hope for others.

In a different world

It presents a contrasting picture when Indian billionaire businessman and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal is backing a consortium of investors led by his son-in-law Amit Bhatia that’s in talks to buy a significant minority stake in Liverpool Football Club, at a time when the Indian domestic league is in such a crisis.

However, all the ills in Indian football can’t be put at the doorstep of the federation, even though they delegated a large part of their responsibility to a private entity for a sum of few crores each year. It’s the AIFF’s obligation that the game in the country stays in reasonable health and the domestic calendar is adhered to. Pursuing financial gain can’t be the primary motive of an entity coming under the Societies Registration Act.

Franchises have finally recognised the folly of hiring players at inflated prices, resulting in a soaring wage bill and an unworkable financial model. Some of the clubs asked players to take a salary cut for the truncated last season, but the money would still be much more than anything they are likely to get if they venture overseas, where they would be paid in accordance to their ability and the value they bring to the table. That’s the reason players are reluctant to seek pastures abroad even when there’s so much uncertainty in Indian football.

Playing in a league of higher standard and professionalism would only make them better, and in turn, help the national team. It would also provide inspiration and aspirational value for others. But as usual, hardly anyone looks past their nose.

The Brazilian team will come, there will be a lot of hype for a few days, there will be a familiar short-lived lament about why Indian football is in such a sorry state, while the Kolkata crowd will cheer every time Vinicius Junior touches the ball.

After a while, it will be back to business as usual.