Bhaichung Bhutia Sparks Club vs Dancing Show Debate

By: Daryl | May 19th, 2009

Step aside club vs country. The new argument is club vs celebrity dancing show.

India’s most famous footballer Bhaichung Bhutia has fallen out with his I-League club Mohun Bagan over his appearances on celebrity dance show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (think Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing With the Stars).

The 32 year old Bhutia (who’s also national team captain) received a letter from his club accusing him of lacking commitment and skipping training to appear on the show. Bhutia has responded by making the letter public and asking for a transfer:

“I no longer have any desire to play for Mohun Bagan after all that has happened. It is good, both for me and the club, to part ways in a peaceful way,” The Times of India quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

“After playing for 17-18 years, I don’t need to prove my commitment. From day one, the club was aware of my schedules for the dance programme.

“I am extremely disappointed with this attempt to make me the scapegoat…I have been humiliated and now I feel no urge to play for the green and maroons.”

My initial reaction was that being on Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (or JDJ, as it’s known to fans and to bloggers who don’t want to keep typing out the full title) had made Bhutia a massive diva. He was never publicity shy – and you may remember him as the man who famously refused to carry the Olympic torch last year – so that was just a footballer getting too famous for his club. Maybe a Sir Alex boot throwing was in order?

But looking at this from Bhutia’s perspective, Mohun Bagan gave him permission to appear on JDJ.
The expectation was that he would appear briefly on the show and get voted off early. But that isn’t how it happened. Turns out Bhutia can dance at least a little.

More importantly the I-League has been over since April, with Mohun Bagan finishing second. The training sessions Mohun Bagan are so upset about Bhutia missing were only for exhibition games. Exhibition matches are still matches, but they’re not as important. And it could be argued that Bhutia is doing more for the progress and popularity of Indian football (which still has a lot of ground to make up if it wants to catch up with cricket) by appearing on a popular TV show instead of doing shuttle runs in training.

In a strange way, this falling out might be just what Indian football needed. As Subhankar Mondal says here, “no publicity, is bad publicity.” And right now the Bhaichung Bhutia vs Mohun Bagal row is giving Indian football way more publicity than a series of exhibition matches ever could.