Save Indian Football: Let POIs play for the national team

I am writing this article after having witnessed the razzmatazz of the IPL opening ceremony and after learning that the Star network has agreed to pay BCCI more than Rs40 crore per international cricket match for broadcasting rights.

Cut to the Indian football scenario and things start to look really bleak. The Indian football team crashed out of the AFC Challenge Cup in the group stages itself, with the national coach taking a dig at his own governing body.

The much talked about Premier League soccer has died before it could see the light of the day and no one knows what is happening to this high profile tourney. The premier domestic league in the country also hasn’t lived up to its expectations; the last match that I was able to catch had a few thousand die-hard fans braving the hot sun to watch their favorite team play in a stadium which is perhaps one of the biggest in the world.

This makes me think yet again, what is ailing Indian football and what is the AIFF doing about it? I am sure that the AIFF will retort and say that they have been doing a lot of things but one can safely say they have done everything else other than delivering results.

However, recently I have come across some buzz which I feel has some potential in the current football scenario in the country. I have read that Odafe Okoli has given up his Nigerian passport and is in the process of acquiring an Indian passport to play for India. I have also learnt that Izumi Arata is also treading those lines.

But such instances have been few and far between, since very few individuals want to give up their original passports to play for India.

Therefore we need to leverage the strong Indian community based in every part of the world who can become the supply chain for our soccer team.

In simpler words we have to import talent from outside, and we also have to apply some balm to our bruised egos and make ourselves understand that our domestic infrastructure hasn’t lived up to the potential; so using players from the diaspora is perhaps one of the options that could benefit us immensely in the short term and become a catalyst to bringing football to the front pages of newspapers.

The AIFF has to move out of its comfort zone and lobby hard with the sports ministry to let people of Indian origin represent the Indian football team, something that is allowed by the game’s global governing body.

If the NRIs and POIs can park their money in India, why shouldn’t they be allowed to invest some talent in this country?

Some of you might feel that the domestic players will lose out but they are losing out anyways these days, most of them can’t even think of the kind of money that the bench warmers earn in a tournament like IPL.

I feel that talent from outside can improve our performances at the international level and bring back football to everyday conversations and to the prime-time television.

I know that it is a long stretch but desperate times call for desperate measures.