8. The Meaning of 'Investment'

8. The Meaning of 'Investment'

Valanka Alemao, who had been listening patiently for most of the meeting, now spoke up,

"First of all thanks a lot to AFC. I'll say I'm very fortunate to meet Ma'am Priti for about six-seven years now, and to meet her again today. So we have not come to fight here or have, you know, nonsensical arguments. All we want is to have an inclusive approach. And as a club owner, I mean, I come from a family that is... involved, technically one question I have is any national player, to come up to a level, minimum he has to play forty matches? I'm asking [everyone] here."

Mr Windsor John responded to her,

"Yes, thirty five to forty matches is good for national team."

Ms Alemao continued,

"So we have the captain of India, Mr Sunil Chhetri, playing for Bengaluru FC. May I ask you how many matches he is playing?"

The BFC CEO Mandar Tamhane answered,

"Including AFC, twenty seven, twenty eight."

Ms Alemao replied,

"This is not good enough. But if we have about eighteen teams we can definitely play very competitive. So instead of, you know, creating this entire negativity of two leagues, I'm sure India as a country that can have unity in diversity. I don't think just because of money, you know, we should all be fighting about it. I would request that please look into this and see how the best thing forward is to have both the leagues together. Because it's really very painstaking, because you know, suddenly we are [relegated] to the second division."

The point she was making, in October 2019, about the number of matches players got to play per season, would become more relevant later on when the Indian national team's performance suffered in 2021 and lack of matches in domestic season was cited as a possible reason.

She addressed the ISL teams' representatives to conclude her point,

"I'm not saying you guys have not invested but everybody here has invested. There's emotional investment, there's money, there's effort, there's time, there's legacy... so I think Mr Das also has to look into it."

This is a perspective seldom heard in Indian football, where 'investment' almost exclusively means money. The years of hard work, research, scouting, player development and long term efforts put in by clubs around the country that don't come with an eye-popping price tag are often overlooked when measuring how much one has invested into the sport. But in fact it's this kind of work that forms the backbone of Indian football, whether it comes to creating and maintaining a supply line of players for the highest level or developing a football culture in a state or community that popularises the sport as a whole.

The AIFF General Secretary Mr Kushal Das responded to her,

"I think we have already looked into it. The proposal we have been presented is exactly what we're trying to do with inclusiveness. It will take a little bit of time and we have to be patient. If you have been investing for so many years, I think it is best to try and be a little patient... But I keep saying, that ultimately we have to find a sustainable financial model. That was not there. Be it the I-League, ISL, we all agree that we still have not found that model. There are many reasons for that. And we can discuss that, always."