From I-League pathbreakers to wooden-spooners

CHENNAI: IT seemed inevitable right from the start of the season when Shillong Lajong announced that they would be fielding their academy players in the I-League and would not be signing any foreigners. How was a team of boys, with an average age of around 19, going to go up against grizzled veterans and expensive foreigners? A bottom-place finish and relegation seemed the only plausible outcome for the Meghalaya team.

The former of those was confirmed on Monday when a 1-4 reverse to Aizawl FC ensured Lajong could finish no higher than eleventh in the league. They are now six points adrift of both Gokulam Kerala and Minerva Punjab with only one game — against Mohun Bagan at home — left to play.

Relegation though is a different matter. Over the last three years, only one team has been relegated from the I-League due to their league position. Aizawl FC finished bottom of the pile (second-bottom if you count in DSK Shivajians who were immune from relegation) but still found a place in next year’s tournament, memorably going on to lift the title.

Last year, Churchill went home with the wooden spoon yet were so sure of being reinstated that they started a preparatory camp months before the decision to restore them came. Mumbai FC in 2016-17 were the only non-exception to the rule.

As such, it is perhaps too early to mourn Lajong’s demise as an I-League club. “The rules state that the team that finishes last in the league gets relegated. That’s all I can say right now,” I-League CEO Sunando Dhar said.

If it is curtains though, this is not the goodbye that Lajong deserve. They have had their moments of joy in the league this year, but they have more or less been hopelessly outmatched. Fourteen losses from 19 games, a whopping 53 goals conceded (nearly three goals per match) and a goal difference of minus 32 is hardly the way to go out for a club who has been one of the most respectable outfits of the I-League era. In a period of Indian football characterised by a state of constant flux, Lajong has been a constant in the top flight for eight straight years.

Apart from them, only East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have managed an uninterrupted stint in the I-League during this period. And in that period, they have shown the way for others multiple times. They were the first club from the Northeast to qualify for the I-League. At a time when the concept of kit deals was unheard of in Indian football, they brought Adidas on board. And during a period when clubs thought only of the short-term, Lajong always placed an emphasis on promoting youngsters with their average age never spilling out of the early twenties.Perhaps it is only fitting that their lowest point comes during a season talked about as the I-League’s last as India’s top flight.