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The 2014 FIFA World Cup concluded on Sunday to bring an end to a month full of action and excitement for football fans around the globe. We Indians too completely embraced the greatest show on earth even though our country wasn’t in action. History tells us that India gave up the chance to play in the 1950 World Cup despite qualifying for it and we haven’t come close to featuring in it ever since. There are many reasons behind India’s failure to be among the elite of world football but Sportskeeda has tried to cover it all under five points. Here are five things India needs to do to play in the FIFA World Cup.
Expansion of youth development and coach education programs
The absence of youth development programs at grassroots level has haunted Indian football for many decades now while age fraud remains a big problem in youth tournaments. There has been some improvement on this front as the AIFF have introduced many of their own academies and are determined to form a competitive team for the 2017 U-17 FIFA World Cup. But the clubs are not doing enough with only a few of the I-League teams having academies. The AIFF has to get very strict about youth development and make it mandatory for all I-League clubs to have full-fledged academies. Currently there is one youth I-League competition but more such nationwide tournaments are needed at various age group-levels. For having well-organised youth development programs, Indian football also needs more qualified coaches so more coaching courses have to be conducted around the country and even the current players should be involved in them, something which the FPAI (Football Players Association of India) have successfully started.
Have a strong domestic league
Having a strong domestic league is very important to produce a quality national team at international level. The I-League has been a fading product over the years so it remains to be seen if the upcoming Indian Super League is a success or not. India needs one strong league and not two unsuccessful ones, hence the future of India football depends heavily on the success of the ISL. The new 10-week tournament has the potential to commercialise the game in the country and also bring masses to the venues unlike the I-League. The pan-Indian presence of the ISL also gives it an advantage and the tie-up with the English Premier League should help in its branding and promotion. The ISL will also have a dedicated grassroots development program so perhaps it will be one of the solutions for Indian football. But it has to be a longer tournament and perhaps merging of the ISL and I-League is the way forward. The combination of existing clubs and corporates and celebrities is perhaps what will give India a strong domestic league that not only improves the quality on the pitch but also has a good following off it so that the sport eventually becomes a desired profession.
Focus on getting better in Asia
While many Indians dream of seeing their nation in the World Cup, the reality is that we are not even close to playing regularly in the Asian Cup. India is currently 28th in the continent and even their dominance in the sub-continent was ended by Afghanistan last year. With Asia having only four and a half slots for the FIFA World Cup, India have to get closer to the top five to qualify for the game’s biggest stage. So the immediate aim has to be to improve at continental level and thus the senior national team need to get regular international exposure. India needs to play higher ranked Asian countries both home and away and improve their FIFA Ranking. It is important that the senior team utilises each and every FIFA match date and be in regular action. This year for the third straight summer India weren’t in action and they have only played one international match so far in this calendar year. The expansion of the Asian Cup to 24 teams from the 2019 edition is an encouragement but the qualifying process will be gruelling as the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers will be merged. India must only focus on improving in Asia for now.
Improve infrastructure to host the World Cup
Many people believe that India’s best chance of featuring in a FIFA World Cup is by hosting it as it will give them an automatic entry. But the reality is we don’t have the infrastructure to even host the Asian Cup. The stadiums are either owned by the state associations, state governments or local municipalities and most of them are multi-purpose venues. India not only needs new venues to host a senior World Cup but also improve the existing ones. IMG-Reliance are refurbishing some of the venues for the Indian Super League and the AIFF will also be taking steps to improve the infrastructure as India will be hosting the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017 and the FIFA Club World Cups in 2017 and 2018. So that provides hope but the progress has to be rapid. The infrastructure doesn’t only include stadiums as Indian football also lack quality training grounds. As a result the India youth teams or national team go abroad to train for international tournaments. The infrastructure won’t improve overnight but there is plenty of work to be done if India ever wants to host the sport’s biggest competition one day.
Long-term plan
Every four years football fans in India ponder as to why their country doesn’t feature in the FIFA World Cup. That reasons behind it are debated and dissected from every angle possible with the mainstream media, which usually ignores Indian football, often setting the next World Cup as a target. Russia are the next hosts in 2018 but the truth is India are nowhere near playing in it. What the Indian football fraternity needs is a long-term plan and work on all the four points mentioned earlier in this piece. India can follow the example of Japan who launched the J-League in 1992 with a 100-year vision of having 100 professional clubs and winning the World Cup by 2092. Thus India doesn’t need to target a specific edition for qualifying and instead should focus on improving the basics of the game both and off the pitch.
Expanding the youth development and coaching education programs, commercialising the domestic game, regularly playing in the Asian Cup and improving the infrastructure should be the targets. Short-term results may not be great but if the AIFF, state associations and clubs work together in meeting a long-term vision then positive things could happen in Indian football. The AIFF also has to work closely with the government and FIFA and AFC are always willing to help as they want India to improve. It is challenging as it’s not easy bringing everything together under one program because of the diversity and enormous population of the country but there is no shortcut to success. We may not even play in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but with a proper long-term plan and the correct implementation, who knows in 2064 we could be hearing the Indian national anthem in the FIFA World Cup.
