“Feeling cheated by AIFF”, says Punjab FC owner Ranjit Bajaj

Punjab FC owner Ranjit Bajaj has slammed the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for lack of coverage of the I-league matches, saying the parent body made a lot of promises which it did not deliver. In December 2018, AIFF had announced that the broadcasters are cutting down on TV coverage of the I-League.

“I feel appalled & cheated that AGAIN we clubs have been

badly let down by AIFF @ILeagueOfficial

for coverage blackout even though they were scheduled -@IndianFootball DSports or instat

or Reliance- who do we beg for coverage? False promises by all @eastbengalfc @Mohun_Bagan,” Bajaj tweeted.

In November, the AIFF signed a deal with DSport as Hero I-League broadcasters for three years but the standard of telecast of I-League matches has not been up to the mark. On November 30, the match between Gokulam Kerala FC and Neroca FC was not shown "due to technical reasons.” In another game between East Bengal and Real Kashmir, the live feed went blank.

Apart from roping in DSport, the AIFF has commissioned

Instat Limited – an Ireland based company to produce feed of the live

audio-visual coverage for the broadcast on DSport. Instat has been producing

all games with an 8-camera setup and this deal is also for three years.

For the past two seasons, the league was broadcast on Star

Sports. However, as per the request of the I-League clubs, the AIFF & FSDL

(Football Sports Development Limited), the new deal was made.

AIFF General Secretary Mr. Kushal Das in his statement back then had said, ''I need to thank Lex Sportel Vision for penning a three-year deal with AIFF. It has enabled us to bank on Instat Limited's expertise in producing live telecast of Hero I-League matches on DSport. The eight camera set-up for all matches will surely add to enhanced viewing for the fans. I also need to thank FSDL for negotiating and facilitating the deal.''