IILM: Former I-League champions Chennai City FC can’t play this season. Because politics

A weekly newsletter that often deconstructs but always explains the business of sport from India

Hello Jigar,

What a week this has been in the world of sport!

The Indian men’s cricket team has a new captain for one-day internationals, there was a wicket on the first ball of an Ashes series for the first time in 82 years, four Western countries have announced diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and a player of South Asian origin played for Manchester United for the first time—that too in the Champions League.

It’s quite fitting that such things happened in the same week that we’re publishing the tenth edition of this newsletter. Y’all have been super supportive and encouraging so far, and I can only hope that you find this newsletter as engaging when we reach edition #100.

Anyhoo, today’s topic is a bit sombre, unfortunately. It’s about how petty politics has ruined a championship-winning team’s chance to compete in one of India’s most prestigious football tournaments.

Politics and Indian sport are inseparable bedfellows. But more often than not, this nexus is detrimental to the growth of the sport—and the players that make the sport what it is. Last week, Chennai City Football Club (CCFC) became the latest victim of this toxic relationship.

How petty politics is crushing Chennai football

Just over two weeks from now, the 2021-22 season of the I-League will begin. While the tournament used to be India’s premier football league until recently, it has since been relegated to the second tier behind the Indian Super League.

This season will have 13 teams, with three new entrants: Sreenidi Deccan FC, Rajasthan United FC, and Kenkre FC. Initially though, there were supposed to be only two debutantes—Sreenidi Deccan, entering via the I-League’s corporate entry route, and Rajasthan United, which won the I-League qualifiers.

But on 4 December, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced that Maharashtra-based Kenkre FC, which had finished second in the qualifiers, would also play in the I-League this season. Kenkre got a ticket at the expense of 2018-19 champions Chennai City FC, who have been barred from playing in the upcoming season after failing to comply with AIFF’s club licensing regulations.