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I-League Goes Online After Broadcast Row; Chennai City Beat Gokulam Kerala - Highlights

Newsclick Team |
After row between the All India Football Federation (AIFF), clubs and the broadcaster STAR Sports regarding broadcast on TV , I-League matches are now taken off air and being streamed online. Get highlights of the Chennai City FC vs Gokulam Kerala FC (CCFC vs GKFC) I-League match below.
Chennai City FC players after I-League match vs Gokulam Kerala FC

Chennai City FC players celebrate the win vs Gokulam. Get highlights of the Chennai City FC vs Gokulam Kerala FC (CCFC vs GKFC) I-League match below (Pic: AIFF).

After five seasons of being undermined, by the newly-formed Indian Super League, India’s national league clubs finally decided they had enough. The last straw came the form of an innocuous email listing the remaining Hero I-League games that the rights holder, Star Sports, had decided to broadcast. As many as 30 games between Dec. 28 and the end of the season have been excluded from this broadcast schedule. (Get highlights of the Chennai City FC vs Gokulam Kerala FC (CCFC vs GKFC) I-League match below).

A wide cross-section of stakeholders responded to this news by criticising the All India Football Federation, its commercial partner FSDL (a joint venture between Reliance and Star India) and the broadcaster, Star Sports. The most powerful statement came from club owners operating in the framework of the I-League. Seven clubs, including reigning champions Minerva Punjab FC and past winners Aizawl FC, formed the I-League (Private) Clubs Association. The clubs represent footballing interests from regions where football is widely played and enjoys a mass fanbase as well. Real Kashmir, Shillong Lajong, Neroca, Chennai City FC and Gokulam Kerala are the other founding members of the association.

Minerva Punjab FC owner Ranjit Bajaj is, in consistence with his normally vocal stance on the state of the sport in India, one of the most vocal members of the association. Bajaj has unequivocally stated that the move to drop these 30 games is the latest in a concerted effort by the decision makers to destroy the I-League from within. “We all produce players and they want to kill the product,” a despairing Bajaj old the press. “We will die and cease to exist if we stop fighting.” The association called on the AIFF to resolve the issue by Jan. 5, 2018. Failing this they will approach civil courts in India and, potentially, FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (an independent institution based in Lausanne that aims to facilitate resolution of disputes in sport). In response, the AIFF has so far passed the buck on to the broadcast and commercial partners, saying it has only a limited say in these matters. The federation went on to say that clubs had been warned about this possibility if they failed to draw sizeable crowds for games and/or if the grounds “didn’t look good on TV”.  The concession—that the dropped games will be streamed live on the internet through Reliance’s Jio TV and Star India’s Hotstar portals.

Today’s fixture between Chennai City and Gokulam is, as per Star’s listings update issued on Dec. 31, not listed for live telecast. So we thought it the best way to kick-off our brand new football live blogs while also acting as an impartial quality control mechanism. Stay with us for regular updates through the game including insider inputs on why this broadcast mess happened in the first place and what its implications are.

Live blog

GOAL!!!

17' Gokulam Kerala score through the scenic route. A freekick from 40 yards is headed on to the post, and off the rebound Musa scores. Game on!

Musa strikes

Mudde Musa strikes for Gokulam Kerala FC in the 17th minute to negate the goal scored by Pedro Manzi. Kerala badly need a win in this match while table toppers Chennai would like to keep the momentum going

Musa strikes

Mudde Musa strikes for Gokulam Kerala FC in the 17th minute to negate the goal scored by Pedro Manzi. Kerala badly need a win in this match while table toppers Chennai would like to keep the momentum going

Satya Vachan

22' Gokulam almost have another. Well, almost being hyperbole. With acres of space in front of him, and two players to aim at in the box, but the chance is wasted. Renedy Singh says 'If you don't play sensibly, chances go amiss'. Truer words have not been spoken. 

Watch the I-League

5:30. On a Friday. If you aren't watching this match (the South Indian derby, or as our editor Leslie Xavier calls it, the Palakkad Derby) then what are you doing? Granted it doesn't have the quality of last night's City vs Liverpool game, but it has drums! Drums! What is football without percussion. Croquet.

Chennai in Coimbatore

Another irony of the I-League. Chennai City play their home games in Coimbatore!!! 

PENALTY

37' Abhishek Das's long delivery is caught on Channai City hand! Gokulam have a chance to go ahead!!!

Gokulam takes lead

38' Joel Sunday takes the penalty for Gokulam, gets blocked by the Chennai custodian Nauzet Santana. He follows through and scores off the rebound. Gokulam 2-1 Chennai.

'Keeper blues

41' It is just awful when a goalkeeper saves the penalty only to see it go in from the rebound. Santana must feel awful. Terrible defending to concede it though.

Added time, extra drama

45+1 Arjun Jayaraj and Pandiyan Srinivasan forget the football and start some MMA Khabib-Conor style. The referee unfortunately isn’t a promoter, and sends them both off. Both teams will play the second half with 10 men.

Half time

Chennai City, the table toppers, the home team, the favourites, took the lead off a Pedro Manzi goal in the 7th minute. Gokulam though weren’t going away, and having equalised through Muddemusa won themselves a penalty in the 38th minute. The initial shot was blocked by Santana, but on a Friday, Joel Sunday scored the second. But let’s forget the football. Because Arjun Jayaraj and Sinivasan Pandiyan did, right on the edge of halftime. The duo went in, hands cocked, tempers flaring, grabbing at each other's throats, only to see the red card soon after. Early showers boys. Its 10-a-side in the second half.

Half time music

On the topic of Santana, have you ever heard this? If you have, good for you. If not, try and guess which one Santana is!!

Sunday on Friday!

Would love for Sunday to score two more, for no other reason than, to use the sentence: On a game played on Friday, Sunday scored a hat trick.

Broadcast info

How do you rate the broadcast coverage of the I-League this season? In our assessment the overall production quality of the league this season has dipped to its lowest ever. One reason, perhaps, is the amount of money spent on the production process in the first place. Insiders have given us some indicative figures. Where an IPL game (including Hawk Eye and foreign operators) costs about 40 lakh to put on the air, the Indian Super League operates on a per game cost of about 10 lakh. The I-League, in sharp contrast, involves a spend of only about 1-1.5 lakh per game.

Cheaper than bike

Rs. 1-1.5 lakh per game, the total spend for an I-League match! For comparison: the Man of the Match bike costs Rs. 60,000 (On-road price)

More broadcast tidbits

One of the possible reasons for Star reducing the number of games is scheduling concerns. Because of the wide repertoire of rights it holds, Star is broadcasting cricket, football, badminton, kabaddi, and even the upcoming Khelo India School Games. Such is the value accorded to the I-League that insiders tell us even the school games will be produced to a far higher standard than what is supposedly the country’s national football league.

Action begins on pitch

47’ Match is back on. And Chennai pick up where they left off, holding the ball in their own half. From a turnover, Gokulam launch a counter, and Sunday turns away with a brilliant first touch, only to be taken out by Vanspaul.

Santana saves again

49’ Christian Saba does it again. He wins the ball in the box, has a light year worth of time, and two teammates better placed to score, but instead he tried to take it on himself, hopelessly entangling his legs, and Santana closes him down. Corner to Gokulam.

Corner waste

50’ Nothing comes off the corner.

Going wide

54’ Edwin Vanspaul delivers a perfect cross into the box, and Manzi, the scorer of the first, rises to meet it perfectly. It goes wide. That is the first real bit of action this half.

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