Present Perfect, Future Tense for Indian Upstarts Aizawl
How small-time Aizawl dethroned the bigwigs, will be spoken about in Indian football history forever.
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India's prolific film industry churns out scores of movies with plot lines bordering on the absurd every year. But even Bollywood might have dismissed as too preposterous the story of the rise of soccer club Aizawl FC.
While Leicester City's Premier League triumph stands as the modern benchmark for footballing fairy tales, Aizawl winning the Indian title last month in only their second season in the top flight is perhaps even more far-fetched.
"The manner in which the club with a shoe-string budget managed to overpower the bigwigs will be spoken about in Indian football history forever," said All India Football Federation (AIFF) general secretary Kushal Das.
Like most fairytales, this one involved a hefty stroke of luck.
Had two other clubs not pulled out of the I-League at the last moment, the modestly-financed club from Mizoram, a hilly finger of a state that pokes down between Bangladesh and Myanmar, would not have been in the top flight at all.
From there, despite a budget considerably less than the 22 million Indian rupees ($342,103) that runner-ups Mohun Bagan paid Haitian striker Sony Norde for the season, the dream unfolded.
A draw in their final match of the season away at Shillong Lajong on 30 April was enough to secure the title, and no less a figure than FIFA president Gianni Infantino led the tributes.
Passionate Support
Aizawl FC was founded in 1984, but despite the passion of the local populace for football, far from the rule in cricket-mad India, was very much in the doldrums until local businessman Robert Royte came on board as club president.
Royte's financial backing reached such a level in 2012 that he became the club's owner.
"As the budget kept ballooning, we realised we need to professionalise the set-up," general secretary Vanlalnghaka Chhawnchhek told Reuters by telephone.
"The club already owed hundreds of thousands of rupees to him and we subsequently handed over club ownership to him."
The second piece of the jigsaw was the coach.
Again there was an element of luck in that former India midfielder Khalid Jamil agreed to swap cosmopolitan Mumbai for the northeast Indian backwater.
The softly-spoken coach was handed a rag-tag bunch of mostly local players supplemented by a trio of Africans and a Syrian.
“No Pressure”
Jamil, who felt he had something to prove after his seven years at Mumbai FC had ended in the sack, threw himself into the task.
"They were really hungry, and being a small team, there was no pressure on us," Jamil told Reuters.
Jamil told his players that Aizawl, must under no circumstances, lose at home.
"We decided we needed all the points from home matches. So home loss was not an option. We won eight and drew the other match at home," the 40-year-old said, his desire for vindication now sated.
"When I took over this team, I wanted to do well and make a statement. But now, I don't feel anything like that. Whatever happens, happens for good."
Even after they sealed the title at Shillong, the Aizawl faithful stayed behind to help clear up the detritus left behind by 23,000 spectators.
"We take a lot of pride in it, it's a ritual in Mizoram football," Royte said.
Aizawl did not have much time to celebrate their title before the very mergre that had granted them their I-League lifeline was back on the table, threatening their future as a top club.
The AIFF has since shelved the idea, but Royte, who had threatened Aizawl supporters, would go on a hunger strike should they be relegated, is still fuming.
"Winning the top division and not franchise fee should be the criterion," he said.
"We don't want to purchase a spot in the top division, we want to earn it. We will never pay a franchise fee."
(Published in an arrangement with Reuters)
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