It’s a mad, mad world

Sunil Warrier / TNN / Jul 6, 2005, 00:38 IST

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Football, be it in Europe, South America, India or even Fiji, is truly a mad, mad world.

Ukrainian striker Andrei Shevchenko is a priceless commodity. Find another equivalent word to define the AC Milan player. The Italian club must have been mad to reject a record offer for him from Chelsea. Or is Russian Roman Abramovich, the Czar of the Blues, the mad man for even making an irresistible offer of Rs 450 crore plus give away Argentinean Hernan Crespo on a buy-one-get-one-free offer.
Football, be it in Europe, South America, India or even Fiji, is truly a mad, mad world.
Abramovich is a rich man, Chelsea is a rich club. So is Man U, Real Madrid, and some of the others who make all the big dollar moves. But being mad can’t be the only reason that such trading takes place.
There have to be other plausible ones. The madness is not limited to just the popular and richer clubs. It percolates down to even smaller and poorer teams in the lower divisions.

Three years ago on a tour to England to play Jamaica in a two-match series, the Indian football team was treated to a Premiership match as well as a Division I tie. Being an Arsenal fan, coach Stephen Constantine bought tickets for a Gunners’ match and staying in Coventry made it convenient for the Indians to watch their (Coventry) match against Nottingham Forest.
Jo Paul Ancheri, the Roberto Carlos of Indian football, had this to say after watching both the matches in the company of a bursting-at-its-seams stadiums. “It’s the most amazing experience. The atmosphere is simply terrific. We were outsiders but every one of us was passionately involved along with the supporters.’’

Arsenal had Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira et al while the combined worth of Nottingham Forest and Coventry couldn’t match up to the Premiership side. They still can’t. Yet, the fascination for the game remains the same.
What gives Abramovich the urge to splurge Rs 450 crore on Shevchenko when it’s not certain how long the 29-year-old Shevchenko could continue playing in the form that netted him the European Footballer of the Year Award last season. Surely the Russian tycoon can reinvest in oil and stand to gain double.
In India, players are not yet a commodity to be bought and sold. They put themselves up for sale and it’s for the management/owners to evaluate his worth. Indian football is still in a semi-professional stage, though players and owners would want to think that the functioning is in the lines of a pro set up in the West.
Compared to a few years ago, there’s big money in Indian football too. Baichung Bhutia is India’s best football who commands a price upwards of Rs 25 lakh a season. There are many others who fall in the bracket of Rs 15 to 20 lakh. But in this scenario only the players benefit not the clubs.
Without television coverage, sponsorship and a novice set-up, it’s a study in irony how Indian club football has survived for more than a century.
Like Abramovich, there are club owners in India too who show no method in their madness. There have to some plausible reasons why the game has not been fossilised in India yet. It’s truly a mad, mad world.

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