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Christmas came early for the millions of football lovers in India when FIFA announced its decision to organize the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup right here in the motherland. And why would it not? Our team has struggled on the periphery of the 150th rank in the world, and if hosting this world cup means a better trained, better equipped and better prepared future generation of footballers from India, most people with the slightest of hint patriotism in them would be very happy indeed.
But is hosting the World Cup in India the right way to go?
India has been plagued with rampant corruption since time immemorial. After our recent spate with the CWG scams, why should one even think that the U-17 World Cup will be any different? An event which is on a much smaller scale, with India having a far lower chance of actually winning anything commendable, means that it is a cash cow for anyone in charge of organizing it. Not only can they make money away from the scrutiny of the media, but they can also do it with a clear conscience; our team was going to lose anyway.
The recent stadium collapse in Kerala shows that Indian stadiums are grossly missing out the infrastructure one would need to organize any international event. So either we make a mockery of ourselves and let the visiting teams enjoy the delights of a stadium cum earthquake simulator, or we spend money refurbishing stadiums. We spend money. That sounds funny enough, doesn’t it?
Also, one might grudgingly agree that our team is nowhere nearly good enough to face the likes of Brazil and Spain. We need development at the grassroots level to actually be any good. By investing in a tournament, we are drawing funds from training programmes for children. And if our team gets humiliated like one would probably expect, this tournament will only have a negative impact on us. We won’t be indifferent to Indian football; we will hate it for being a national shame.
A good number of optimists believe that with the U-17 World Cup, Indians will be more interested in football. If the Indians had to be interested in football, the I-league would have already had that effect. Indians, or football fans of any nation for that matter, aren’t looking for a game that is close to their home and is involving players from their own communities. It is always about the talent. That is why the Barclays Premier League and the La Liga are so much more popular here. That is why we idolize Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, not Lalrindika Ralte and Sunil Chhetri.
Without development at the grassroots level, our football teams will never quite achieve that mark. To receive the kind of training, they need financial backing. And for financial backing, Indian football needs revenue. To generate revenue, Indian football needs fans. And if Indian football is to gain fans, it needs more talent. The vicious cycle goes on and on, and the buck never stops at any table.
Even if our organizers invest heavily in this world cup, not many, pardon me, not enough people will be interested in watching 16-year-olds running in their shorts. Since the U-17 World Cup isn’t the most viewed sporting event on the face of the planet, one can assume that the returns aren’t going to be particularly high. And with FIFA already swooping in to collect the lion’s share of the profit, why would anyone want to incur a loss and organize an event?
The revenue will fall short, and Indian football will take a massive dip. Who wants to invest in a white elephant that drains you of your funds, but serves no practical purpose? Development in Indian football will nearly come to a standstill after this event, and it will take us years to get back on track. This tournament might benefit one generation of players by giving them exposure, but it will hurt the subsequent generations by depriving them of the facilities they would need.
Amidst all the negativity, there are some rays of hope. If the Indian U-17 team manages to go far in this tournament (I won’t be optimistic enough to say ‘win’, let’s just say they qualify for the knockout phase), it might just spur the patriots among us, and we might actually watch the game. Again, it all boils down to their performance. It will be a repeat of the 2010 Hockey World Cup, when suddenly every teenager in India was a hockey fan for a month. Had India put up a performance a bit more memorable, one would have seen a hockey wave last a little longer than just a few months.
And once the ball starts rolling, and the rich guys start to invest and rake in the profits, it just snowballs. The trend catches on. If our youngsters managed to go far, not only will see a better team in the future, we will also see more investment in Indian football and perhaps more enthusiasm about Indian football in Indians.
The U-17 World Cup might not be such a bad idea after all. But for now, I remain sceptical of the positivity that it promises to bring. Then again, that is the beauty of being a pessimist; either I’ll be proven right, or I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
And for the sake of Indian football, I really pray it is the latter.
Jai Hind!
