By getting more teams like Bengaluru FC into the I-League. Even though BFC is in I-League, their approach is like that of of BPL team. Their head coach, Ashley Westwood is a product of the Manchester United youth academy. They have the perfect mix of Indian and foreign players like Sunil Chhetri, Robin Singh, Sean Rooney, Curtis Osano, CK Vineeth, Joshua Walker and so on.
The best part is how they treat their fans. The club is very active on social media and interacts heavily with the fans. Being a Bengaluru based club, the club has already hit the right chord by involving the people. Their motto is “Idu Namma Ooru, Idu Namma Team” which means “This is our city, This is our team” in Kannada. The atmosphere last season at the Bangalore Football Stadium was electric. Similar to Liverpool’s famous Kop, BFC has its own special stand and like the Liverpool’s Kopites, BFC fans call themselves as the West Block Blues.
When the club returned with the I-League trophy last season, the reception that they got at the Kempe Gowda Intenational Airport was just magnificent. For years we Bangaloreans wanted a football club of our own and we finally got it in the form of BFC last season.
I don’t think that ISL will benefit Indian football. Very few Indian international players took part in the tournament. All the tournament did was generate revenue for the team owners. We don’t need an IPL style tournament. We need more teams like BFC who can be more professional and treat their fans well.
The EPL stands atop the English football league pyramid which is the oldest in the world; it’s 135 years old. The youngest team in the Premier League (Swansea City) was founded 105 years ago. There’s an astonishing amount of folklore, history and culture in English football, with every team having a deeply rooted, tribal, multi-generational fanbase. This history and culture adds layers of gravitas to the unique “product” of the Premier League. It’s also worth noting that the Pyramid system itself adds an extra layer of excitement and complexity, unlike in a franchise-based system, team can disappear and reappear across different seasons.
You can’t, nor should you try to manufacture this artificially. A better league to emulate would be a league from a different country with a similar objective to India. A country in which Football is not the primary sport, but interest is growing quickly and there’s demand for a league.
You could at the MLS in the US, or leagues in China and the UAE. But my personal opinion would be to emulate the A-League in Australia. Although a franchise, it’s grown steadily and sustainability, it’s seeing impressive international media coverage.
How can India emulate the English Premier League?
In football they tried doing it by introducing ISL. And I ll say considering it was its first year. It was success. Most of the stadiums were more than 60% filled. But there are number of issues as follows:
1. But there is already I – league going on parallel. If they really want to make it success they need to work in collaboration ISL and I-league.
2. Football is not that popular in India so footballers are also less and the quality of football is again very poor. Most of the football followers in India (barring west bengal junta) follows European football. And there is huge difference between the quality of two. Improving basic infrastructure in football may help, but this is very difficult.
3. Another point is getting more team football teams which is again a challenge.
