Chima Okorie (file picture) was prime among the foreigners who left a mark on Indian football. Others like Jose Ramirez Barreto, Emeka Ezeugo and Majid Baskar were also prominent

These are early days in the National League but I already notice a familiar trend. The Calcutta teams have made a slower start than their western counterparts. It took three matches for both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan to register their first victories. Federation Cup champions Dempo, on the other hand, didn?t drop a point in the first three rounds and Salgaocar won two of their first three games.

This happens almost every year. The reason is simple. Teams like Dempo, Salgaocar and Churchill Brothers ? who have surprisingly earned a solitary point from four outings so far ? go into the country?s premier competition fresh as daisies. They treat the NFL as top priority and prepare accordingly, rarely over-taxing their players.

Just compare this with the state of our teams. By the time the NFL kicks off in December-January, East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Tollygunge Agragami have already played around 30 matches (I?m not counting the international engagements). Not only is it mandatory for them to take part in tournaments like the local league, IFA Shield, Durand Cup and one or two more, they are expected to win all of them. The pressure from fans and officials is stifling at times.

As a consequence, the players are exhausted and the coach is burdened with a long list of injuries. No wonder Subrata Bhattacharya and Subhas Bhowmick?s men make a stuttering start in the NFL. They take time to get their radar right, but once they do so, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan prove themselves to be the best equipped teams to win the four-month marathon battle for supremacy.

Churchill Brothers and Mahindra have come close to topping the NFL only to choke at the crunch. They find the pressure-cooker situation of the final few hurdles too stiff to surmount. How else do you explain the fact that Churchill have finished runner-up thrice without winning the coveted crown once?

The vast experience of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan helps them pip the others on the home stretch.That is precisely why they have won six of the eight editions of the NFL held so far.

I won?t be surprised if the Calcuttans? stranglehold continues this time too. East Bengal certainly top my list of favourites and though Dempo and Mahindra look better organised at this point of time, don?t write off Mohun Bagan. With some reinforcements, the green-and-maroons can pose a serious threat to East Bengal and the others.

Talking of reinforcements, the clubs are inevitably kept busy by the hunt for foreigners. The quality of recruits from outside Indian shores has hit an all-time low. The four non-Indian footballers to have left the deepest impact are Majid, Emeka, Chimaand Barreto. I understand it?s not possible to import players of such calibre regularly. But even a trio like Douglas-Musah-Okoro can make life difficult for any opposition, as East Bengal showed. This time, no team can boast of three half-decent foreigners.

How dependent we have become on sub-standard foreigners! These are players who won?t make the cut in top clubs of their countries and yet are welcomed with open arms in India. Some of them become indispensable, just because they use their bigger build and better muscle power to dominate the smaller Indian boys.

It reflects the pathetic state that Indian football finds itself in. Clubs, expected to win at any cost, use hired soldiers to meet targets, thus killing the growth of home-grown talent. Some of the Goan outfits at least make the effort to maintain a high percentage of local players in their roster, but look at the major Calcutta forces. This season?s Mohun Bagan squad, for example, can pass off as a north-east selection side. You won?t find more than three or four boys from our own state in their first XI.

The frightening fact is, the middle-class is turning its back on football. Cricket, tennis, chess and even table tennis is acceptable to them, not football. Mainly because this sport doesn?t appeal asa career option.

The NFL was the best thing to have happened to Indian football since our playing days. Yet, almost a decade after its inception, one question begs to be asked: have we moved from point A to point B? The answer is an emphatic no.

There are many ills bugging Indian football, the foremost being the absence of an organised nursery. I have said this before, I?ll say it again: if a sincere effort has to be made to revive a dying art, a concrete junior development programme must be drawn up immediately and pursued with cent per cent seriousness.

As a starting point, the federation must make it mandatory for all NFL participants to build their nursery teams.