Blackout Continues: fans in the dark as Indian clubs launch AFC Cup campaigns minus telecast
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, both Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC, the two Indian clubs playing in the AFC Cup, will begin their group stage journey. But unfortunately for the fans, it seems neither of these games will be televised.
Mohun Bagan are playing Maziya S&RC from Maldives at Guwahati, their designated home ground for the AFC Cup group stage. Bengaluru FC are flying to Laos to go up against Lao Toyota FC. But Star Sports, who own the broadcast rights for the second-tier continental club football championship in Asia, have not listed the two matches in any of their channels.
The problem appears to be that Fox Sports, the parent company of Star Sports, has not chosen these matches involving Indian clubs to be popular or lucrative enough to produce for live broadcast. As a result, Star Sports, which relays the live feed from Fox Sports to the audience in the Indian subcontinent when it comes to AFC Cup, will not be showing it.
Both the Blues and the Mariners stand a fighting chance to progress to the next round in the tournament, but whether or not their fans get to see their matches or not will depend on the heads of Fox Sports, since the Indian broadcaster does not take an active role in the production for the matches.
In contrast, the recently held AFC Champions League qualifier match between Mohun Bagan and Tampine Rovers, was also set to be not shown on TV until 24 Ghanta, a Bengali news channel, bought the rights to the match and carried out the production by themselves. Star Sports own the rights to AFC Champions League as well; but they were not interested in showcasing its qualifiers.
The fans, who already put up with low quality and irregular televising of the I-League matches, will go through a similar grievance during their clubs' campaigns in Asia as well. All they can hope is that the future matches of Bengaluru FC and Mohun Bagan are looked upon more favourably by the heads of Fox Sports.
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