Preference to ISL: I-League 2017-18 proposed fixtures offer unfavourable time slots to clubs

THE I-LEAGUE IS BEING pushed aside from the best time slots for football by the AIFF in favour of ISL.

With ISL being granted a provisional recogniton by the AFC and runnin simultaneously with the top division I-League this season, AIFF's commercial partners IMG-Reliance have already come up with a fixture for the entire regular season for the tournament. The I-League, which is expected to be broadcast on the same network as ISL, Star Sports, is left with the logistics of coming up with a fixture that does not clash with the more favoured competition.

In the draft fixtures sent to the clubs, the AIFF has not alotted a single Sunday match to the top flight league. The I-League will have some matches on Saturday, but on a mid-afternoon time slot that leaves the entire prime time TV spot for ISL pre-match show.

I-League has traditionally held most of its matches in weekends, many on Sundays especially crucial fixtures like the Kolkata Derby and clashes between the more popular clubs in the league.

This season, ISL will have matches from Wednesday to Sunday, most of them kicking off at 8 pm with an additional earlier kick off on Sunday, all of them televisied, with no simultaneous games. I-League will be partially televised, with simultaneous matches, and kick offs earlier during the day - mostly at 5:30 pm - with games falling between Wednesday and Saturday.

An advertising campaign promoting ISL has been running on the Star Sports network and beyond for more than a month now. There has not been a single TV spot promoting the I-League. There are reports suggesting that I-League matches will also be relegated to just the free to air Star Sports First channel whenever the network has an Indian cricket match to showcase on the same day. Star Sports First is not currently available on many if not most cable and DTH platforms.

This mistreatment of the top flight league seeks to ensure that most of the eyeballs are reserved for ISL while I-League's presence gets underplayed.

Some of the I-League clubs may decide to contest these fixtures but it may prove to be futile as the broadcasters Star Sports are also stakeholders in ISL and will exclusively favour that competition when it comes to allotment of high visibility time slots.

The clubs have been asked to respond to AIFF in 72 hours about whether or not they are okay with the proposed fixtures and ready to play matches on those slots. It remains to be seen whether or not they can negotiate with AIFF and Star Sports to move at least some of the matches to Sunday.

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