ISL power to the fore: No preparatory camp, Marco cloud over releasing players for India
CHENNAIYIN FC HEAD COACH & MANAGER Marco Materazzi courted controversy by saying he may not release players for the Indian national team's upcoming World Cup Qualifier matches if Chennaiyin FC are facing a difficult game that clashes with the national duty dates. The remarks have led to an online backlash from fans to other stakeholders in Indian football.
The comments were published in yesterday's Hindustan Times newspaper, where the former Italian player said that when it came to releasing players for national duty, each case should be looked at separately, before adding,
"If it is an important match for Chennaiyin, I won't be sending players to the national team."
It wasn't long before the news reached some of the major stakeholders in Indian football. Parth Jindal, the owner of Bengaluru FC, took to Twitter to express his frustration at the news:
If it's true that the national players are not being released due to @IndSuperLeague organizers IMGR it is absolutely shocking - #shameful
— Parth Jindal (@ParthJindal11) September 27, 2015
This led to Indian football fans expressing their frustration on Twitter, questioning how a domestic tournament could supersede the importance of a World Cup Qualifier involving the national team.
@fni Go ahead and support ISL. I've always said they only want profit and not development.
— aerow15 (@aerow15) September 28, 2015
@ChiranjitOjha @ParthJindal11 @MohunBagan @Mohun_BaganAC @gauravmodwel ISL guys dnt care fr NT with current crop dey thnk like BATMAN maybe!
— Soham Cardozo De (@SohamDeGuevara) September 28, 2015
@ChiranjitOjha @ParthJindal11 @IndSuperLeague if thy have... Then we can expect much more for the next 10 years.
— rakendu (@rakendur) September 28, 2015
@fni Players must have to come forward together & decide what they want, money or national duty? It's on them now!
— Dharak Makwana (@spyd_001) September 28, 2015
@fni if IMG feel tht NT is no bigger than ISL then imagine wat thy feel n can do to ileague.
— rakendu (@rakendur) September 28, 2015
The FIFA rules on the matter of releasing players for national duty are quite clear. In an official document titled "Release of players for national association representative matches in accordance with the Coordinated International Match Calendar", the guidelines are set down in unequivocal terms:
A club holding the registration of a player called up to play in the national team must release him to the national association on the fixed/set dates for international matches in each calendar year (see enclosure “Coordinated International Match Calendar 2002 – 2004”).
The player shall also be released for the period of preparation. If the player is called up to play in a qualifying match for an international competition, this period shall be 4 days (including the day of the match). The period of release shall be prolonged to 5 days if the match in question is held on a different continent to that on which the club is domiciled (Paragraph 5b).
It is learned that Atletico de Kolkata head coach Antonio Habas, and most other franchise managers, were ready to let go of the players 4 days ahead of the first game, conforming to the norm. But it's the ISL organizers who see national team fixtures as an anomaly that takes media attention away from their gala event, and want to suppress it as much as possible. They have already made progress on this department by refusing to let the national team play its home match against Guam at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
And to make matters worse, it has now revealed that the Indian national team will have no preparatory camp ahead of its World Cup Qualifiers on 8th and 13th October. This is highly unusual for any team in the world to go into important matches like this without enough preparation; especially when India have struggled in previous matches and are yet to win a single point, and are languishing at the bottom of the group.
It is quite obvious that AIFF are cutting short on the national team in order to allow the Indian Super League to sit on the players for as long as possible.
To make sure clubs are not inconvenienced by player loss due to international fixtures, leagues around the world observe international breaks during scheduled international friendly or competition qualifier matchdays. But India's dual league system bears down on the football calendar and hardly leaves any room to maneuvre. But what is happenning now, where players are being forced to foreo their national duties to play in a private, unrecognized tournament is unheard of in recent history of world football, and goes against every principle that the global sport stands for.
The whole episode once again raises the question: if the AIFF are not looking out for the national team, whose interests are they supplicating to?
