Pandemic & new rule factors behind Oz flavour in ISL

CHENNAI: When the seventh edition of the Indian Super League (ISL) opens later this month in Goa, one of the most visible trends of the transfer window will make its presence felt straight away, former A-League players plying their trade in India. Even if players from Australia’s toptier league have made the switch to the ISL in years past, the upcoming season will see 14 players who played for clubs in the A-League last year. Why is that the case? “You can’t really zero in on one factor,” says Mandar Tamhane, Bengaluru FC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

“The new ISL rule on nationality, Fox’s TV rights issue and players from the A-League have had some success in India are all contributing factors.” The new ISL rule, ratified in July, says only four foreigners can play at any one time. However, among those four, one will have to have Asian roots. “This has meant some clubs looking at the Australian market and that’s why you see some clubs buying Australian players,” Tamhane points out. There’s more than a grain of truth in that sentiment. In the first six editions of the league, only six Australians played in the league.

This year? The eight clubs between them have snapped up eight Australians, all of them from A-League. The exodus is starker this year because, like Tamhane says, Covid-19 has brought about some problems for the clubs there. After the pandemic halted play, Fox ‘used a force majeure clause in the original deal with FFA (Football Federation Australia) — worth $57mn a year — to walk away with three years remaining on the agreement...’ according to the Guardian. Even if Fox have renegotiated that deal since the reduced deal is reported to be worth only $32mn till the end of the 2020-21 season. As a consequence, clubs have had to embrace austerity measures.

And ISL clubs have had capitalised on that by taking players on loan who would have otherwise played for their parent clubs. Take the example of James Donachie, who will turn out for FC Goa in the upcoming season. The former Australia-21 international, who only moved to Newcastle United Jets in April, was snapped up by Goa on loan a month later.

That ought to explain the credit crunch. The new rule of having one Asian player rule has also helped in the sense India’s lingua franca of English helps. It’s a point Tamhane also makes. The influence of the Australian market was front and centre as Roy Krishna’s 15 goals helped ATK to the title in 2019. He had emerged as the top goalscorer in the A-League the previous year. This year, Mumbai have purchased Adam Le Fondre from Sydney FC. Guess what? The striker, who has a total of 36 strikes from 53 games in the ALeague, is odds on favourite to bag the golden boot this year.