For most of the time, football in India feels like a night without end. Corporate interest veers from sporadic to apathetic – profit, at least the possibility of one, overtrumping passion –infrastructure is inadequate, the season short and interest from broadcasters lukewarm. All of this contributes to good performance being rare.

East Bengal fans with the Tricolour at the AFC Champions League 2 qualifier against Kuwait’s Al Arabi SC on Wednesday. (Samir Jana/HT)

And yet, football matters. At 300 million, it continues to be the second-most followed sport, one that is growing at 25%, as per a KPMG report. India has more followers of football than hockey and badminton put together, according to that report released last September by the union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

That can help explain why FC Goa earned nearly ₹4 crore through gate sales for the game against Al-Nassr and why Jamshedpur FC’s decision to pull out led to supporters marching in protest. And why nearly 18,000 fans braved heavy rain, and the disruption it causes to life in a metro, to see their team on a mid-week evening.

The wish of a full ISL season with broadcast and streaming partners should be fulfilled this term, a big improvement from between the last Independence Day and this one. Add to that the possibility of India playing two teams from the 2026 World Cup in Brazil and New Zealand. Here are three more wishes one day before I-Day that should make 2026-27 better.

Antonio Lopez Habas didn’t have a good time in Asia with ATK Mohun Bagan, having won only one game against a foreign team in the AFC Cup. And for a long time on Wednesday, it looked like the dry run would continue. How East Bengal manage a heavier schedule in physical and financial terms will decide whether they can emulate or better their run to the semi-final of Asia second-tier tournament in 2013. India’s tryst with AFC Champions League 2 has been restricted to Mohun Bagan Super Giant playing hooky and FC Goa failing to get a point from the group stage. Can East Bengal change that?

Having retained the IWL title, East Bengal’s women’s team qualified for the Asian Women’s Champions League preliminary stage and will start their campaign in Malaysia on Monday. Last term, East Bengal won a match in the group stage among Asian elite. Head coach Anthony Andrews will hope to at least match that. For that, East Bengal will have to win their group in Malaysia.

FC Goa will also compete in the AFC Challenge League, a competition where East Bengal made the quarter-final in 2025. Football grows only when clubs and national teams compete in international tournaments. Deep runs by East Bengal men and women and FC Goa will also help India go higher in the AFC Club Competitions Ranking.

To the best of my knowledge, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) does not have an award or trophy named after him. At a time when AIFF is headed by one of his former TFA cadets, why not christen the ISL Golden Boot award after the man who was Bade Miyan to everyone connected to football in this country? On that note, why not also name the Golden Ball award after Tuslidas Balaram and the Golden Glove award after Peter Thangaraj?

But as coaches came and went – rare is one who has lasted beyond a season at Mohun Bagan – Rathi slipped in the pecking order. The natural thing to do in such situations is to either put the player up for sale or send him on loan. Mohun Bagan did neither.

So, Rathi stayed on playing 61 minutes in 2021-22, 12 the next term, 142 minutes over nine games in 2023-24 and 46 minutes in 2024-25 before moving to NorthEast on a free. At ATK and then ATK Mohun Bagan, Dheeraj Singh played one match in two seasons. He then played 53 games for FC Goa and on rejoining Mohun Bagan in 2024-25, again played once all season. It may not be a coincidence that along the way, the goalkeeper in the under-17 World Cup lost his place in ISL.

Are Mohun Bagan doing the same to Dippendu Biswas? Will Panagiotis Dilmperis ensure that the same does not happen to Manvir Singh and Liston Colaco given that Robson is still on the rolls and Dejan Drazic and Lallianzuala Chhangte have joined?