#TFGinterview with Larsing Ming (Part 2) -- On I-League, infrastructure, age fraud and PIL

[CONTINUED FROM PART 1]

A FEW MONTHS ago TFG spoke to the Shillong Lajong head coach Thangboi Singto. It was towards the end of a tough season where the club was dealing with not only a relegation threat in their I-League campaign, but also the prospect of a forced relegation to second tier under the proposed new league structure (something they're still battling). 

When we asked Mr Singto about the kind of treatment I-League clubs were getting from the All India Football Federation, he replied, 

"In a family, it's the mother and father who make all the decisions for you. In football, the mother and father is our Federation. So as a parent body you have to look out for all your sons and daughters. You can't play favourites, because you're there for all of them."

At a time when I-League clubs are constantly grieving about mistreatment from the AIFF, how does one find a balance in his role as a club owner as well as an AIFF Vice President? Faced with this question, Larsing Ming Sawyan took a few moments' pause and replied, 

"The only reason we invest resources and personal time is towards the development of the game. Therefore, I'm very clear that if I've set apart a certain part of my personal time both for setting up a club as well as administration, it is for the improvement of the game. That's what I keep in my mind when I go for the meetings or take any decisive action."

As talk turned to I-League, TFG asked him about the messy situation prevailing over what possibly is the league's last season. With multiple Goan clubs pulling out, there's a shortage of clubs at the top division. We enquired whether certain clubs from the North-East could be brought up from second division to fill that void. Larsing Ming said,

"The scenario will be clear in the next weeks or months to come. As of now we don't have the final count as to how many of the existing clubs will be available for the league... but if a situation should arise where some of the Goan clubs go ahead and drop out and we're short of clubs, it would be but logical to look at the other teams that could be in contention. And in that regard there are one or two teams from the North-East who could figure."

But he refused to name the clubs. So we asked whether Aizawl FC fans should be happy. He answered,

"Oh, I'm sure they'd be happy yaar, if that happens."

With the AFC U-16 Championship and the FIFA U-17 World Cup taking centre-stage in the Indian football landscape, the way the game is administered in the junior levels has received a lot of scrutiny over the last few months. And during the recent drive to scout for players around the country to be part of the U-17 World Cup squad, the widespread problem of age fraud was highlighted multiple times. Ming said that while it's impossible to get rid off the problem immediately, there were steps being taken to address it,

"I think the problem of age-fraud is a very deep-rooted malice in Indian sport. It will require a really strong conviction to rid ourselves of it. I think there are small steps in that direction... certain resolutions that the AIFF Executive Commitee has recently passed about holding coaches accountable and putting certain penal measures into practice. Hopefully the AIFF will be serious about it and continue to look at it in a thorough and proper manner."

But apart from being an AIFF Vice President and the Shillong Lajong president, a large part of Larsing Ming's footballing responsibilities come from being the President of Meghalaya Football Association. And with the state being a mountain terrain, infrastructure has been a long-standing issue despite the presence of a vibrant footballing tradition. Most of the grounds within the city of Shillong don't have grass, and while the Polo Ground area (two football stadium and an extra practice pitch) has been rapidly developed, the usage of that infrastructure now costs money that many small tournament organisers say takes a dent on their already tight budget. Faced with a catch-22 situation like this, where limited ground space means development actually causes some displacement, how does a state association president act to improve the situation? Ming advocated taking a broader perspective here,

"If you go back even 7 years, we didn't have one football ground in the entire state that could decently host a national level tournament. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was never used for football matches in its first 20 years of existence. It was used for political affairs, concerts, socio-economic congregessions but never really for football. The only ground that existed was the Shillong Sports Association ground, which had a grass pitch and would deteriorate within one month of the local league kicking off during the monsoons. And all every other field outside the Polo Ground area was a mud pitch. We had seven eight club vying to practice on one mud pitch. The state teams that went to Santosh Trophy and nationals also prepared on those clay turfs. Fast forward to post 2009, we have installed 3 artificial football pitches and 2 futsal pitches in Shillong. We have 3 more artificial grounds in other parts of Meghalaya, plus another 3 futsal pitches. So today the infrastructural setup in Meghalaya has grown by leaps and bounds; in fact from one of the weakest states in that regard, we have become one of the best in India. So in that context, progress has been made. But yes, grounds are expensive and they require investment. Therefore to maintain them certain fees must be charged, unless the government helps out... but I think at some point everybody will have to invest towards the upkeep."

Talking about problems in the administration, when we mentioned the recently filed Public Interest Litigation against the All India Football Federation that got rejected by the Supreme Court over technicality and is about to re-surface again through the high court, Ming obviously took a stand against a possibility of a judicial intervention,

"I don't think we need any judicial or government interventions in the affairs of the federation. Whatever issues there may be, they can be sorted out through the intervention of the Asian Football Confederation and FIFA. Hopefully that should always be the proper channel for getting any grievence or redressal as far as football is concerned."

So does the fact that the AFC have asked AIFF to create a joint task force to oversee the merging of leagues - something that should be a domestic affair dealt with internally by the AIFF and other stakeholders in Indian football - a beginning of the same international intervention that the Lajong president would prefer over a PIL? He replied,

"Yes it is, clearly... no, the start of the league re-structuring process, yes."

[To listen to the full interview on TFG Football Podcast, GO HERE]