JOIN US"Yeh Diwali," croons former Italian World Cup winner Alessandro del Pierro, "football wali."
The Juventus legend, who is in the middle of a promotional advertisement when he says that, is holding a sparkler in his hand.
Stars Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg, Joan Capdevila and Luis Garcia appear in the same advertisement on Star Sports.
The promo is first aired to homes a couple of weeks before the start of a football tournament. Christened the Indian Super League, the organisers, having spent just a few quid south of 1000 crores to put together this show of extravagance, are going all in.
Fast forward a few weeks.
It is the opening ceremony of the ISL and Bollywood, Reliance and cricket stars — three of the biggest Indian industries — are launching the tournament. A first of its kind, four years after the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the governing body for the sport in the country, first mooted the idea.
The phrases used on the stage are cringeworthy. While the official tagline is 'Let’s Football', what the concept makers want and to be believed is simple. "Birth of a footballing nation." While that was always going to be impossible, it's fair to say the ISL has been a pleasant surprise in an otherwise unsurprisingly familiar year for football fans.
The senior men's national team did what many thought was impossible as they found a new nadir after touching the abyss in 2013. Wim Koevermans, that reticent Dutchman, belatedly said goodbye to the coaching job, before the year-end rankings showed India at 171.
Famous, old clubs like Mohammedan Sporting need funding to stay afloat as we go into the new year. There were no breakthrough stars as the fans continued to whine, rightfully, at the state of football.
Former India coach Stephen Constantine, who has worked a mini miracle with the Rwandan national side, and former Kiwi boss Ricki Herbert, who famously led the All Whites to the 2010 World Cup, were shortlisted as the two candidates identified to take the country forward following Koevermans’ reign.
But the ISL and Bengaluru FC, champions of the I-League in their debut season, brought some cheer.
The quality of the ISL was a couple of notches better than I-League. And the tournament attendances can be compared to those of leading leagues in the world. Those encouraging figures will ensure that the league will return for a second year. And that can only help football in the country.
The Golden Oldies, who many thought had signed up only to bloat their bank account, actually did care.
And with the possibility of watching the likes of Thierry Henry (social networks have been busy with rumours that Pires has approached his French compatriot with a view to playing in India), the buzz and the standard will only grow.
The I-League, the country's top-tier league, saw a new winner and a worthy one at that. Bengaluru FC were announced as the lone new entrant to the last season and given that the AIFF had made the club relegation-free for the first three years, they (AIFF and JSW Sports, the club’s owners) copped a lot of criticism for it.
But the criticism went unfounded as BFC, largely untroubled despite losing their way a bit, won the title after embarking on a three-match winning run at the end of the season. It was this victory that brought Ashley Westwood, the club's coach, into the national spotlight but AIFF ignored his credentials.
Going into 2015, the man who gets the job has to hit the ground running if he is to to be in the good books this time next year as the 2018 World Cup qualifiers begin. Qualification from the Asian section for India will be a pipe dream but that shouldn’t stop them from stitching together a few passes in midfield.
Something they forgot this year.
Swaroop Swaminathan