India, March 6 -- Homeward from the Eden Gardens a little after midnight on Sunday, I got a message from a senior official of the All India Football Federation (AIFF). It was the link inviting bids for commercial rights of AIFF's club properties which had been uploaded on the federation's website minutes earlier.

"Best of luck," I wrote back. "Thank you, we need it," pat came the reply from a person not known to be a night owl. Clearly, some federation officials were at work to get the Request For Proposal (RFP) document ready. It came out on March 2, 10 days after AIFF had said it would. The last date for submission of a bid is March 19. The bids will be opened on March 20.

AIFF is no longer assured of the Rs.50 crore funding that supp...