Former India skipper Baichung Bhutia endorsed the proposed IMG-Reliance League next year and said the IPL-style football tournament would help revive the sport in the country as the I-League had failed to create any impact.
“I think, the new tournament is great for Indian football. I think it will benefit players a lot,” Bhutia said while on a visit to the IMG-R training camp at the Cooperage here on Tuesday. “If you look at last 5-10 years, the way the I-League has gone and the way Indian football has, it has not been able to make a big impact. So I think it is important that we have new investors and new teams, new people in the game,” the veteran striker added.
“I think it has failed out to reach to different parts of the country. It is just stuck between Bengal’s five clubs and Goa’s five. The federation (AIFF) did not have new ideas to spread the game. I started United Sikkim and struggled so much in Sikkim itself.”