Federation Cup could go as AIFF can find no slot
The winds of change sweeping across Indian football since the advent of the Hero Indian Super League are taking a toll. The first casualty appears to be India’s premier knock- out tournament, the Federation Cup.
Indications are that the All India Football Federation could pull the plug after the 37th Federation Cup scheduled to be held in Jammu and Kashmir in August this year.
The AIFF intends to terminate the Federation Cup from 2016 onwards. Ostensibly the federation intends to divert the funds it spends on the Federation Cup, about Rs. 3 crores for each edition, to broadbase the 2nd division I- League and the U- 19 I- league. The ILeague lower division could be spread over five zones with the top two teams in each zone competing in the final round to qualify for the main I- League.
This may be the official reason but the undisclosed factor is that finding a suitable time slot for the Federation Cup is proving to be a Herculean task. State leagues especially those of Goa and Kolkata are held in July- August. From September to December the time slot has been taken by the ISL. So the only available time slab is the festive season at the end of the year before the Ileague commences. This experiment was tried this year, without any success.
This season the 36th Hero Federation Cup began in Goa on December 28, just eight days after the inaugural ISL finished. Publicity was negligible. Consequently the crowds stayed away. For the first three days of the tourna- ment, there was no live telecast, as up- linking facilities had not been arranged.
The tournament lasted 15 days and teams had to play every alternate day. The schedule was hectic and players complained of fatigue. Some clubs like East Bengal came with little combined practice and did not impress. There are no clear- cut reasons why such a star- studded team like East Bengal flopped. Coach Armando Colaco ( sacked in mid- February 2015) felt that as 24 East Bengal players had been on duty for different ISL teams, they had little combined practice and so were disjointed. They lacked flair, speed in attack and scored just once in their first three matches.
Non- stop competitive matches and incessant travel has made some players jaded. East Bengal despite having the best team on paper are sixth in the ongoing Hero I- League. Dempo with several junior and senior internationals in their squad are in the bottom half of the I- League table. In the 36th Federation Cup, Dempo finished runners- up but then injuries to several key players have hampered their progress.
Shillong Lajong, who also had several of their players in the North- East United squad of the ISL, are struggling to avert relegation in the I- League as they are 10th in the 11- team league.
So to ensure that players get proper recovery time after the completion of the ISL the Federation Cup could be scrapped. The fortnight winter break is intended to ensure that the players are rejuvenated when they resume playing for their traditional clubs in the I- league.