E-Paper
A final worth more than a million dollars for Bengaluru FC and India
On Saturday, when Bengaluru FC meet Iraq’s Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya at Doha’s Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium for the 13th AFC Cup
The colour blue unites India when it comes to team sport. On Saturday, when Bengaluru FC meet Iraq’s Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya at Doha’s Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium for the 13th AFC Cup, it will be white. The stadium holds around 13,000 but there will be a lot more than that rooting for skipper Sunil Chhetri and his mates obliterating the club-country divide if only for 90 minutes and a little more.
Such is the buzz around the final that before flying out on Friday to play FC Pune City, Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) goalie Debjit Majumder said he would be a Bengaluru FC supporter for the next two days. As Mohun Bagan’s goalminder, Majumder had denied Bengaluru FC the I-League in 2014-15. That was then.
READ | Bengaluru FC face Iraq Air Force Club hurdle in historic quest for AFC Cup
On Thursday, ATK’s principal owner Sanjiv Goenka had told HT: “This has been a great achievement. More focus should be given to them.”
Emotions aside and the high of being where no Indian team has in an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) competition, Bengaluru FC’s performance would impact football in India. “Tomorrow is the biggest day so far for club football in India,” said I-League CEO Sunando Dhar, over the phone from New Delhi on Friday. “In its ranking of member associations, the AFC gives 70% weight to performance of that country’s clubs in international competitions such as these. The rest is on how the national team performs,” he said.
With India up to 137 in the Fifa rankings --- the highest since 2009 --- Bengaluru FC’s performance could thus help in the Asian Champions League qualifiers next term, said Dhar. Asia does not follow the model of the Europa League winners getting a direct entry in the Champions League because the gap between its first 12 countries and the next dozen is too big but, being able to skip a qualifying round would be an important step for Indian clubs on the long journey to join Asia’s elite.
And with an ISL that would include teams from the I-League still said to be on course for a 2017 kick-off, Bengaluru FC could get franchises into dreaming big. So, there is a lot to play for even though the $1 million winners’ purse is less than the R 8 crore the ISL offers.
READ | AFC Cup final: Bhaichung Bhutia’s advice to Bengaluru FC for the big match
Bengaluru FC go into the final with No.1 goalie Amrinder Singh suspended; his second booking in the knockout rounds coming in the third minute of second-half stoppage time when they were leading the semi-final 3-1 at home. Udanta Singh is fit, according to a team source, but having had an injury lay-off, it has to be seen whether coach Albert Roca continues with Alwyn George even though he is a makeshift wide right option. And, against a team for whom Hammadi Ahmed has scored 15 goals, one less than the AFC Cup’s all-time highest, they don’t have foreign firepower in the front third.
But as American football (gridiron) coach Vince Lombardi once pointed out, the difference between teams often boils down to not lack of strength, not lack of knowledge but rather a lack of will. This may not be more important than life and death, but Bengaluru FC are unlikely to come up short on that count.
