When 3+1 is not equal to 4 !

Sometimes we find the basic rules of mathematics beyond reasonable.

This happens only during  unique cases.

One such case is related to the "3+1" rule associated with  Asian football.

Every Indian football club has been part of this bogie but differed on other platforms.

 

One such platform is the league system, here the rule was different and created a paralysis for the growth of  Indian football but was pleasant to the eyes.

Whenever our teams went for the international glory, they failed to shine even with the brightest stars.

It was quite visible that the layers of the coat which was sufficient for the 10° atmosphere failed to shield on days with negative temperatures.

Our players jammed in the cold of the other team's quality and the heat of the pressure along with expectations.

Bengaluru football club did fight to break the ice but it was not enough to melt the hard structure of superiority.

We can see that after 2016, our clubs have performed poorly in the AFC club competitions, ATKMB is the recent mirror that showed how far we are even when so close to the image we created!

FC NASAF was ruthless in everything because of the advantage of having a "3+1" rule in their league structure.

Even with the bad season, at the continental level, they seemed to be too strong to stop.

It was seen with their play, players, and team that there are enough advantages to decrease the burden of the foreign players.

                FC NASAF VS ATKMB 

BFC to a certain extent is successful when it comes to previous ventures but overall the performance has decreased and everyone knows the reason.

What can we do now ?

The answer is simple but complex enough to implement in the fragile structure of Indian football, where clubs died the unnatural death in the past.

The death due to stoppage in the pumping of the money to stay alive even with wounds.

So the Indian Super League was started to fill this gap, to bring better quality football and with investment went to crores, it was certainly visible.

People started watching the games to get a glance at the stars who played to enjoy their holidays.

I said that because most of them were away from their peak and still fetched crores because they brought attention to Indian football.

Nevertheless, it worked and slowly ISL got the reward of being the topmost league in the Indian football structure.

It meant that the best players were there to fight and play for the new founded clubs.

This did help them to get a good salary, better pitches to play and better facilities to improve.

But on the International stage it failed, as the dependency on the foreign players broke the unification of the team when they left.

The "3+1" rule in the AFC club competitions is meant to give the clubs same plate to feed upon. It's all up to them that how much they can fetch.

This is the reason for our poor performance in these competitions and the reason is not having players who have played much together as a team in the league.

The AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE's performance of  FC GOA is also similar to other clubs but was different only in the sphere of the team.

FC GOA from seasons has recruited fewer foreign players than other clubs. They have players from their reserve team and they indeed gave them chance during that big competition.

It showed that, if we progress in a better way, we can definitely change fate although it will take years to perfect that but will surely decrease the chances of failure.

Having finished group stage at 3rd place, having played against Asian giants, it was commendable.

But now, things are changing as from the current year onwards we are moving to the "3+1" structure in the ISL.

Also with that there would be a minimum of 27 matches for each team to play from the next season.

A lot of changes for the good and surely we are on the right path.

Indian players will get more opportunities at the places which were occupied previously by the foreign players.

It will also increase the competition in the team.

Overall improvement in the team's play with Indian playing 11, will make us a strong contender for the trophies at the continental level.

As I have mentioned before, it will take years to perfect but the move is already made and now it's up to the clubs to gear it forward with the pace safe enough for the Indian football structure and its future.

The next year AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE will have Mumbai City Football Club as our representative, with a great bunch of the Indian players and the "3+1" advantage we can expect them to take forward where FC Goa had left.

With the introduction of new rules and league structure we can deny the rules of mathematics, as 3+1 here is not equal to 4, it is more than that.

We will surely calculate it in the coming years to come but surely it will be positive enough to give us  happiness, growth, and success, hopefully it won't get derailed again!