#TFGinterview - Bhaichung Bhutia backs open league system, says every lower tier club should have a shot at the top division

FORMER INDIAN CAPTAIN and legendary striker Bhaichung Bhutia believes that it's essential for lower division clubs to have a chance to play at the top tier in order to sustain a healty league pyramid in India.

Speaking exclusively to TFG on the sidelines of the Global Sports Business Show 2016 in Mumbai, Bhaichung said that once ISL assumes the role of the top division league in India after the re-structuring of leagues, the idea of introducing promotion-relegation must be looked at,

"Right now ISL are just a tournament that wraps up in 3 months so it's okay. But we need to make it a longer league, it's very very important. if they are looking at becoming the national league and having their top teams represent India in an Asian level club tournament then I think somewhere the stkeholders have to sit down and see that how it helps everyone involved in Indian club football."

Having once owned a lower tier professional club himself, Bhaichung said that the dream of playing in the top division is essential for such clubs to operate,

"We feel that every club, regardless of where they are playing, whether it's the second or third division, has to have an opportunity to play in the highest league. That has to be given. Unless you have that motivation, it becomes very very difficult. So my only thing, even in the Federation, is that, okay, ISL can be the top league, but it has to give any club playing in lower tiers the opportunity to reach the highest league. So that's what we're looking at and hopefully all the stakeholders involved with football should benefit from this."

When asked about the experience he had with his club United Sikkim FC, which pulled out of the national stage in 2014, Bhaichung said it gave him some crucial lessons in the realities surrounding Indian football,

"We were one of the few clubs that earned its promotion to the I-League within a few years of being established, and went into top ten in the league. We had the sponsors back then, which enabled us to do that. But after a couple of years we lost the sponsors, which led to us losing players as well. That's how we got relegated."

But he insisted that he took comfort from the fact that effects of the efforts put in by his club can still be seen in Indian football,

"Overall it has been a good experience. Today I feel happy that players like Sandesh Jhingan who is one of the best players in ISL, and Debjit Majumder who plays for Mohun Bagan and ATK who have come out of United Sikkim. So in a few places, we have had considerable impact."

Having been a player and a club owner in I-League and worked as a consultant for an ISL team, Bhaichung believed that the major differences between the two competitions lay in the level of investments they attract and the fan outreach their teams have,

"Obviously, ISL is a huge success in terms of fans and commercial interests. Media talks about football because of ISL. At the same time, I-League is our main league, which the Federation has conducted over the years. That's what our players come up through. The difference, of course, is that in ISL the investment is much higher. But I-League... I think we still need a lot of hard work to make sure it reaches more parts of the country, and also the fan-following and connection of the people has to be improved."

Apart from being one of the greatest strikers India has ever produced, Bhaichung also has the honour of being the first Indian to ever sign a professional contract with a European club. He spent 3 seasons at League Two club Bury FC in England and later played for two Malaysian top division clubs Perak FA and Selangor MK Land. When TFG asked him about the recent trend of young Indian players going abroad to seek training and some of them landing contracts at clubs over there, Bhaichung said he was all for it,

"I think it's generally good to go out, train and even play in clubs because it's going to raise your standards and give you a good idea of football as a whole. So if you want to go outside, you should play at the highest level in India, because that's the only way to go outside."

Also the chairman of the AIFF Technical Committee, Bhaichung Bhutia said there were positive signs that football was growing in India, and the emergence of a number of professional clubs from North-East India was a prominent example of it,

"I think it's very important to have clubs coming from differnt parts of the country, that's how you get good players. Today we have multiple clubs from the North-East; Neroca from Manipur, Aizawl FC from Mizoram, Lajong, United Sikkim... and look at the players that have come out of North-East. So many ISL players... maximum of our national team players are from the North-East. So it only motivates us to get more talent coming out."

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