Reasons why Indian Football cannot improve

A cricket crazy nation like India has to go a very long way to become an internationally recognized football playing country. There have been talks going around for a number of years now that India is making a significant mark in football. But the FIFA ranking of India has nothing to show for it. It’s really sad that the second most populated country in the world is so behind in sports, barring cricket.

Many international teams like Argentina,Venezuela and club giants like Bayern Munich came to India for exhibition matches. International stars like Diego Forlan (Golden Ball winner in the FIFA World Cup 2010) and more recently, former Chelsea superstar Didier Drogba visited India. But the question is, how much will all this help Indian football? In the near future, more teams and players will come here and say some good things about the people who came to watch them and cheered for them. They know that whatever they say, we will celebrate it. But endless repetition of it without any proper action will not change this scenario of Indian Football.

During the years between 1950 and 1960, Indian football was on the rise as the game used to attract a lot of spectators who would come to the stadiums. But the country witnessed a sharp decline from 1980′s and today the game has been confined to a very small regions of West and South India, mainly in Goa. Now the question arises – what are major factors which are not giving the football in India a flying start? Many a times it has happened that a panel has been formed to discuss the factors, but eventually the discussion would turn into a topic which is related with “India, as a Market”. That’s what India is to those clubs and officials and that’s fair enough. Now let’s take a close look at some of the major factors which are blocking the flow of Indian Football.

1. Shortage of Funds

Every year, whenever the “budget” comes, an average amount of money is sanctioned for sports. But with cricket becoming a religion for Indians, more money needs to be distributed among other sports. With respect to football, for building world class stadiums and for improvements of the local clubs, in every step, money is very essential.

2. Indian climate and genetic issue:

Indian climate is a big factor for football players. A hot and humid weather is not ideal for football at home and neither can the Indians take the load of 90 mins in cold climate abroad, which in turn denies them making a mark in the FIFA Rankings. Genetically also, Indians are physically far behind that of foreign players.

3. Lack of sponsors:

Sponsorship is an another main area where Indian football is far behind as compared to the so-called “gentleman’s game”, cricket. The main reason for lack of sponsorship is due to the poor quality of performance that the Indian team exhibits, especially in the international matches. While it’s shortage of space for getting more sponsors on the jersey of the Indian Cricket Team, it’s a completely different scenario in the case of Indian football. Sponsors are more eager to tie up with cricket as compared to football because of the fact that, in cricket, India has won two World Cups and one T-20 World Cup. Also, in cricket, the performance of the country is far better than in football. But if India needs to flourish in soccer, then sponsors need to come and help the “beautiful game”.

4. Parallel Issues:

The major problem with Indian football is that there are less number of takers in comparison to cricket. The required involvement and commitment which needs does not exist in the takers because of less returns from the game. Also, the players do not have a start from the early age and the system does not have any concrete action to develop players of international level. There is also a lack of of systematic and streamlined academies across the nation which will bring the finest talents from the lowest level.