“Kerala is in the semifinals,” I remarked, more to myself, while scrolling through the sports news on my smartphone (newspapers can take their own sweet time!). My home state entering the final-four stage of one of the most prestigious football tournaments in the country, was a matter of great pride for me.
My landlord's 13-year-old son, Ayush, who was glued to the TV screen alongside me, looked at me with saucer-shaped eyes and quipped, “What? Kerala lost in the finals! Don't you remember?”
It was my turn to be taken aback. “No way! Where did you read that?” I challenged him, thrusting my smartphone in front of his scandalised face. His eyes flicked from right to left across the screen and then stopped abruptly. “What is this Santosh Trophy?” he asked me innocently...
A peek into the past
The 71st edition of the Santosh Trophy is in its final stages in Goa, but there might be others like the teenaged kid who are unaware of the existence of the tournament, let alone keep track of the progress of their state teams. The trophy was donated by the Indian Football Association in the memory of its president, Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhury, the Maharaja of Santosh—hence the name. Santosh is now in Bangladesh.
Goa last hosted the tournament in 1996, where they lost to Bengal in the final. In fact, Bengal has won the Santosh Trophy the most number of times—31—including the inaugural year, that is, 1941. Its supremacy is evident from the fact that Punjab, with only eight titles, is the second in line.
The all-time top scorer, however, is not from Bengal. With 45 goals, Inder Singh of Punjab takes the honour. He never left his home state for greener pastures and even refused an offer from Malaysian prime minister to play for his country. Singh went on to play for the national team for over a decade. For years, Santosh Trophy was the pool of talent where the selectors would fish for probable stars of the Indian football team.
The fall
The pool dried up once the National Football League dethroned Santosh Trophy in 1996 as the country's prestigious domestic tournament. With the NFL giving way to I-League a decade later, the rout was almost complete.
The rot started much earlier, when, in 1990, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) experimented with an under-23 age bar in Santosh Trophy. Though the rule was done away with later, the damage was already done as it came to be viewed as a 'junior tournament'. The focus soon shifted to the NFL.
In 2009, Bob Houghton, coach of the Indian team, barred national team players from participating in Santosh Trophy after striker Sunil Chhetri was ruled out of the Nehru Cup because he got injured playing for Delhi in the Santosh Trophy. Houghton was never a fan of the prestigious tournament, even going to the extent of calling it “nonsensical”.
The proverbial final nail in the coffin came from the AIFF itself, when it introduced the rule that players who are registered to play for I-League clubs cannot play in the Santosh Trophy. It was reported that the football governing body had even considered scrapping the tournament, but decided against it fearing a strong backlash.
Lack of incentives
The backlash would have been warranted, since Santosh Trophy is the only tournament in the country at present that pits states against each other on the football field. Also, it offers a platform for the junior players and the players discarded by the I-League clubs to get noticed.
But one look at the quality of football at the tournament, and you know there's some truth in Bruno Coutinho's words. “The new AIFF rule has made it more of a junior tournament. There is hardly any player of star value. If Indian football is to improve one should bring back the lost glory of Santosh Trophy but the onus is on AIFF to do it,” lamented the former Indian captain, while talking to a leading national daily. He reminisced about the days when the country's top players like I.M. Vijayan and Baichung Bhutia took part in the Santosh Trophy.
And it is not just the absence of star players that has taken the sheen off the tournament. The prize money is a pittance when compared to I-League or Indian Super League—Indian football's million-dollar baby. The winner of the Santosh Trophy gets only Rs 5 lakh, while I-League winner gets Rs 1 crore, while ISL winner takes home Rs 8 crore. The AIFF, reportedly, spends not more than Rs 1 crore to conduct the Santosh Trophy!
… A day later I saw Ayush rushing off with his friends clutching a football in his arms. He was wearing the yellow jersey of the ISL club Kerala Blasters FC. And then it struck me. The kid was referring to the ISL 2016 final where KBFC had lost to Atletico de Kolkata on penalties in the final. He was heartbroken after the match. So was I, then. It didn't matter to him that his home state had won the Santosh Trophy five times and had been runners-up seven times. It didn't matter to him Kerala was two games away from winning its sixth title. For Ayush, Kerala football team means, KBFC.
