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INSIDE FOOTBALL WITH: Ashley Westwood - Indian Super League is on the rise, and it can have a big impact

The English coach is in Mumbai covering the new Indian Super League for television, and hoping to sign a player or two for his I-League side.

India should be better at football than it is. With a population of 1.2 billion, the world’s second most populous country is 167th in the latest FIFA World rankings, one place below the Cook Islands (pop. 10,900) and down from 100 in 1993.

Cricket is India’s national sport so that’s one reason why football doesn’t monopolise the spotlight as in other countries, but football is still hugely popular in India and that continues to be shown during the second Indian Super League.

I’m covering the competition daily from Mumbai, working for TV during 68 of the 72 days of matches until it finishes on December 20th. It’s the second year of the competition and, a week into it, standards are much higher.

As well as the high profile foreign players and managers here like Nicolas Anelka, Roberto Carlos, Elano, Carlos Marchena, Simao, Florent Malouda, Didier Zokora, David Platt and Marco Materazzi, there are some excellent younger professionals from afar.

Take Chris Dagnall, a 29-year-old forward who was first choice at Leyton Orient last season. He’ll probably earn the same in four months as he would in a year playing at a similar level in England. If he does well in India then he can be of use in the January transfer window and find another club in England.

He can’t come just come here and not take it seriously because he won’t be picked or get a club back in England. When clubs scout players now, they have so much detail to see how they have been doing that they can cross-check. There’s an oversupply of footballers, so if you’re not doing well then you’re going to struggle to get a club.

The ISL is not just a league filled with foreigners chasing money, though. The majority of players are Indian and they’re fitter and better than a year ago. It took four games for an Indian player to score in the league last season, while six different Indian players scored in the first six games in this year’s competition.

As manager of Bengaluru in the I-League (the ‘normal’ Indian top-flight rather than a 12-week ISL competition), I’m looking at the competition and for three or four players who can help us win our league next season. If they impress in the Super League then I’ll try to sign them.

The idea of the Super League is to get millions of eyeballs watching football and that’s working. Over 170 million watched the first week of the competition last season across eight broadcasters and we’re waiting for the figures for the season so far. That made it more popular than the World Cup finals and the English Premier League in India. The television presentation is slick, with all the latest technology, the competition is respected. It has to stay clean of corruption to avoid losing public trust, but so far so good.

Crowds in last season’s ISL averaged 24,000 – putting it only behind the Bundesliga, Premier League and La Liga. That made it the fourth biggest league in the world, with higher crowds than in France, Italy and many other countries where football is hugely popular.

While advertisers are appealing to India’s fast growing middle class, the games appeal to almost all social classes. Match tickets start at 20 pence and rise to around £20.

The stadiums are pretty full with Kerala Blasters (mainly owned by legendary former cricketer Sachin Tendulka) averaging 49,000 last season and Atletico de Kolkata, who are linked to Atletico Madrid, over 45,000. They’ve been high this season too, showing that it’s not a fad.

Everything else can follow, more Indians can start playing football and hopefully standards will continue to rise, in part thanks to coaches such as myself. In the ISL, standards have already risen significantly this season and you’re now seeing 600 passes per match – a typical Premier League game is around 900 – while fitness levels are higher and the tempo is faster. That all makes the football more entertaining and more popular.

Even in the two years which I’ve been working in India, I’ve seen more kids playing football in the street, more (usually rip-off) football shirts being worn. The English Premier League is very popular and the timings are perfect. It’s not like in the Far East where Premier League games can be played in the middle of the night, in India there are games from England at 5.30pm, 7,30pm and 9.30pm. It works.

And if the ISL, which organisers hope will catch on in other Asian countries, and the regular I-League can continue to improve, then it’s natural that the quality in the Indian national team will follow. That won’t happen overnight, but for decades people have been trying to get football to take off in India. It’s finally happening.