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India is a country which has a rich cultural diversity and that’s how the world sees us. But the perennial problem for India has been to produce a competitor to the marquee sport, cricket. Every country has its primary sport, but in India cricket is a religion. Fans are seen burning effigies of players, their homes being destroyed if they falter in a match. Recently in a debate about “Why India is not progressing in any sport other than cricket?”, interesting thing that sprung up was – Indians had a “genetic” problem, in the sense that people from India were not successful enough in sports other than cricket because we just did not have the endurance which the Americans or the Europeans have.
That, in my opinion was the biggest load of garbage I had ever heard. In a country of one billion people, how can we not have at least a 100 people who have the capability of playing top-level football??
There are a number of theories. Probably the most common is that both India as a country and Indians as individuals just have other priorities. “Sport was never a priority for a majority of [Indian] parents and their kids, even if their kids are good at certain sports (other than cricket). It is never considered a career option. Another problem with Indian football is lack of funds available for Development the sport, it’s not that All India Football Federation (AIFF) doesn’t get enough money for development of football but corruption at AIFF has been at the highest level.
Where do we stand with Indian football today?
Indian football at the moment needs a lot of structuring and it’s not just at the top, it starts from the grass-roots. Motivation and support from parents, coupled with a positive attitude towards the game, is where I believe a lot of investment and lot of interest should come. That’s the only way up!
Further we need a clear-cut system in our club football. In other words, a strong I-League which should grow to 18 to 20 clubs, where all clubs are professional as per the AFC Club Licensing criteria. Below that a structured Division 2, maybe a regional Division 3 inter-linked with the state and city leagues. This way there is a pyramid visible in our club football which also needs to be inter-linked with youth and school football. Football should be encouraged at the school level and the best need to be filtered through the system to the top.
In terms of what the bigger picture is for the AIFF and IMG-Reliance liaising with all the states, all regions so that it is seen as a national body for the whole country rather than sporadic events and tournaments in far-flung places like Goa, Bengal or Kerala which are anyway hotbeds of football.
Future of Indian Football?
Things have changed in recent years I would say there are a lot more football fans, especially among the cities, who follow teams like Barcelona, Manchester United far more passionately than they would follow Test cricket.
Clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United have expressed an interest and have also come down to India to do some recruiting. As a matter of fact Manchester united have set-up their football schools in India. Manchester United even selected twelve children from India for a training stint at the Manchester Soccer Schools in London later this year.
Biggest news this year came when Sunil Chettri got transferred to Portuguese giants Sporting CP B side; it’s a big achievement for an Indian player to play in Europe. By far only two Indian players have achieved this feat, one being the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia.
Clubs like Bayern Munich have come to India to play friendly matches. The Venky owners of Blackburn Rovers are producing an animated football movie with Ronaldinho being the central character. These changes might appear to be small but this increases the fan following in India.
FIFA is ready to make an investment in India by setting up 50 artificial football turfs all over India.
India will also host U-17 FIFA World Cup in 2017 which is a big step forward, this assures that India will participate in a FIFA tournament officially for the first time. This tournament means a lot even if it is U-17 because this will not only bring limelight to India but also help our own country to develop love for this sport, another positive from the U-17 world cup is that India will prepare a competitive side to match other sides, even if India are out of the competition in the first round, exposure to such level of football will surely help young players, and with Indian media, popularity is guaranteed.
Sports minister Ajay Maken and AIFF president Praful Patel assured FIFA that the government will extend all support to the world body for hosting the U-17 World Cup here in 2017.
All this positive assure a good future for Indian football ,The transformation cannot happen over a one year period or a decade but would require the efforts of one generation to create a strong population which believes and loves the sport and is willing to commit to the cause of the beautiful game in our country. If this is achieved, success would follow.
