It was a regular Friday evening when we, the crazy Indian football fans, heard the news of which we had only dreamt up until now – that our colts, the U-17 Indian team, had beaten Italy U-17 2-0. The ecstasy we experienced was similar to that of India winning an Olympic gold.
A massive morale boost for our youngsters, it was also a dream come true for us Indians. This news was and is still reported on the AIFF website.
Happiness, however, doesn’t linger long for the ones who always struggle hard to prove themselves.
There soon came a twist from Italy. Lega Pro, through a press release on their official website, clarified that the team India faced was not the Italian National Under-17 side but the Italian Lega Pro U-17 Representative, comprising of players playing in the Lega Pro and Lega Pro 2, supposed to be the third and fourth tiers of Italian football.
The news created havoc in the Indian media. They did their job, blaming the AIFF for publishing “misleading information”. A reputed digital media platform also reminded us that India's performance in the exposure trip has not been up to the standard, with the team not able to register even a single win in the seven matches played against club sides from Portugal so far. Thus, a win over a formidable Italian side would be unfathomable.
The sad part, however, is, that not many acknowledged the win of our U17 boys, whichever team it might have been against. The 2-0 result itself is an achievement for us, whatever the opposition might be. We as football fans would have preferred it if the people who pointed the gun at the AIFF had made contact with the Italian Football Association, talked to the AIFF and shown us a clearer picture.
Analysing the situation from a different perspective, we must make a note of the following aspects:
#1 The Italian U17 team has not qualified for the 2017 World Cup.
#2 Italy U17 – oh sorry! – the representative Lega Pro side was playing against the Indian colts with the Italian national team’s jersey on (An analogy would be Mohun Bagan playing in the Indian colours against BFC; sounds unreasonable, doesn’t it?).
#3 When the “Exposure Tour” started, the AIFF had declared that there would be friendly matches between the U17 boys in blue and the U17 ‘national teams of Italy and Portugal’, as reported on 5th April.
First, it’s not technically wrong information as Italy fielded the side as their national U17 team. It’s up to the nation to choose its players. If, for example, the Afghanistan cricket team comes to India to play a friendly and India does not place their top players and loses to Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Cricket Board says “Afghanistan beat India”, would it be wrong or ‘misleading’ information?
Secondly, as reported by reputed digital media platform, an AIFF official has said, “U17 Italy were playing in their national team jersey”. Now, does a national football association allow a club to play in the national jersey?
All said and done, the AIFF should come up with a good explanation as soon as possible to clear the air on this burning controversy. They need to explain to the fans the process by which this friendly match was signed between two countries. Ideally, there should be a Tier-1 (senior team) or Tier-2 (other teams) form which needs to be filled once the countries agree to play each other.
This would help Indian football fanatics to celebrate again!
