Indian football is currently in deep darkness. Although the football season has officially begun on paper, competitions like the ISL or I-League have still not been able to start. In short, the ongoing deadlock has found no solution so far, leaving the future of the country’s top two leagues uncertain.
Amid this situation, former Mohun Bagan coach Antonio López Habas made an explosive claim, saying that if Lionel Messi had known the true state of Indian football, he would not have come to India. Referring to Messi’s much-hyped India tour, Habas wrote in an Instagram post, “At this moment, the condition of both professional and amateur football in India is extremely poor and degraded. Organising such an event involving one of the world’s greatest footballers at a time like this is, in my view, extremely shameful.”
He further added, “Professional players and coaches do not know when they will be able to play again. In many cases, they have not even been paid their salaries for months. I am sure that if Messi had been aware of this situation, he would not have agreed to attend such an event.”
A day earlier, Olympic gold medal-winning shooter Abhinav Bindra had also criticised Messi’s India visit in a post on X, writing, “Messi’s visit to India deeply saddened me. It is unclear what the organisers were trying to achieve. Are we really building a sports culture, or are we getting busy with hero worship? Millions were spent just to take photos with a legendary footballer. If even a small part of that money had been invested in developing sports infrastructure in our country, so much could have changed.”
It is worth noting that no organisation, including FSDL, has bid to organise the ISL. Despite discussions with several ISL clubs, the federation has failed to reach any consensus. Even I-League clubs, effectively boycotting the federation under the leadership of Kalyan Chaubey, met the Sports Minister directly. In such a shaky and uncertain situation, Messi’s arrival in India has sparked strong reactions, with Inter Kashi coach Habas leading the criticism.
