7. The Bengaluru FC Perspective

7. The Bengaluru FC Perspective

Of all the clubs present at the table in this meeting, Bengaluru FC had a special perspective to offer. Because they were the only club at that point who had the experience of playing in the I-League as well as the ISL.

So when Mandar Tamhane, the CEO of BFC, spoke up, the cross talk ceased,

"Whatever the AFC has proposed along with the AIFF, I think it's a good proposal in terms of inclusiveness of everybody. Obviously there will be some cracks here and there but if you look at the longer future, this is a better solution that we have. And I say so because we have played in the I-League also, and we have played in the Indian Super League also. And here if the decision is to be taken on the basis of what is good for Indian football... some things may not be good to me, some things may not be good to certain clubs. So I mean, if you're going to keep on talking about this I don't think you will find a solution to this."

He continued,

"In terms of investment, everybody is investing in their own best way whether it's the youth, whether it's first team et cetera et cetera. There's an AFC licensing criteria which most of the clubs failed to honour... Having played, again, the I-League and the ISL, we have also made a lot of investment whether it was the I-League or Indian Super League, whether it's grassroots or youth development. But I think this will make things stronger."

He addressed Mr Dutta who had just spoken before him,

"What Debashish mentioned about taking care of both the leagues, by the end of six years when we have promotion-relegation automatically both the leagues will be taken care of. So it's a transition period, it takes time... if somebody is coming in and investing a lot of money, yeah, certain people will be hurt but in the larger picture I think Indian football will benefit, and is benefitting. I think this is a good thing in terms of [being] inclusive of I-League, ISL and all the clubs involved in Indian football."

The discussion about investment that he started would take the meeting to some interesting, introspective places from here on.