India and the World Cup dream: What needs to be done

Photo Credit: AIFF Media

“Dreams are those which just won’t let you sleep”

The above sentence is not only deep, it is also very true. Everyone has dreams, either to own a penthouse or to be a film star or to be CEO of some multinational company; you get the drift. I too have a dream and it’s for India to someday win the FIFA World Cup. The more realistic dream would be for them to just qualify for one, agreed, as Indian football isn’t really thriving at the moment and the national team is ranked at a lowly 147 in the world. Baichung Bhutia and current skipper Sunil Chettri are probably the only two household names in the country as the little media coverage, lack of infrastructure and corruption has made my dream a little far-fetched. But as the saying goes, “Every unrealistic feat achieved was once someone’s dream”

In a country were cricket is religion and cricketers are give the status of Demigods, you may think football is far behind in terms of viewership. But where cricket’s viewership in India is 176 million, football isn’t far behind with 155 million, which is remarkable for a country ranked 147 (stats courtesy: celebrity management group). So my dream is not unrealistic, bas ‘aam insaan ke aankhon se thoda door hai’ (just a little far-fetched from the eyes of a commoner). I think cricket has had enough share of its stardom being the most loved sport, now it’s time for football to take the limelight. And that can be achieved by giving it the necessary impetus, infrastructure and moolah to make it stronger and rise again.

Indian football history is not as short as many of us might think; it’s kind of cool. The Indian football team qualified for 1950 FIFA World Cup but did not take part for financial reasons. India was also one of the founding members of the Asian Football Association, and was the best team in Asia between 1951-1962 having won the Asia cup 2 times and being runners-up on one occasion.

Once a bright young footballing nation, India is unrecognized in the world of football today. So has gone horribly wrong?

We aren’t that bad in my opinion. FIFA awards ranking points to countries based on their performance in big tournaments and international friendlies, which are played during international breaks. India looses out because the friendlies the national team plays aren’t during the international break. So we don’t get any points even if we win those matches.

Tournaments like the Nehru Cup, AFC Cup – which are FIFA recognized – are also not played during international breaks, which make it difficult for us to get points.

Below is the estimated budget of AIFF (All India Football Federation) for the FY 2013-14:

We can clearly see that the premier footballing authority in India is going through a cash crunch, such that there is a deficit in their account. On the other hand there is BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) – the world’s richest cricket organization – has so much money that it doesn’t know where and how to spend it.

For the dream to come true, what Indian football needs is another dream. An IPL-style football carnival with the help of both AIFF and BCCI is one train of thought. Since the IPL is an established brand in itself, with an estimated value of $3.85 billion, it could help football’s cause for this extravaganza. The likes of Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Hyderabad Sunrisers, Royal Challengers Bangalore and King’s XI Punjab can help, as they have their own strong fan base and their owners have pretty rich pockets to invest a few hundred crores more in this proposed project.

IPL is conducted every year in the month of April and May for a period of 56 days. So prior to that, this league can be conducted between November and December.

With 9 teams in competition, we would need 9 venues and we already have few venues such as Salt Lake City. The teams will be given budgets to buy players from the 14 I-League teams with the squad size to be maximum 22 players and can have a maximum of 4 foreign players in each team.

Marketing this thing won’t be a problem for the teams as their brand name is already established. Apart from this every team would need to have a youth system and community development programs.

The initial rough estimate suggests that the expenditure which each team would need to incur will be around Rs 100 crores per team i.e. Rs. 900 crores per year overall. The owners will be paid 50% by the government of India and the remaining 50% should be recovered by the clubs via merchandising, TV rights and kit deals etc.

The Indian sports budget this year was Rs. 1500 crores with football being given just a meagre Rs. 4 crores (see government grant in the above budget) and could be given a fairer budget of Rs. 800 crores for the football development.

Indian captain Sunil Chetri during the Nehru Cup match in New Delhi in 2012. (Getty Images)

For India to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, what we need is a football youth development system which recognises talents from schools, colleges and gives them the opportunity to study and play the game.

There are a few factors which drive a sport in any country. I call them the 3 I’s:

Investment, Infrastructure and Interest

We have the investment, with our footballing market considered as a sleeping giant with a viewership of 155 million people. It is a huge target market and many investors are ready to invest but these investors need faith to put in their money and will want some sort of collateral. That is where the government comes in with their support and backing, along with a mega marketing plan to promote the event.

Government backing is a must with GDP at 5% and we having the economic stability that can invest in developing football from grassroots levels. Football is a sport which can be taken as a career like cricket. All the Government needs to do is show this to the parents of our country by developing football training schools where football is compulsory along with basic studies. And it’s not just that one has to be a professional player, he or she could be a manager, a journalist or a Physiotherapist even.

Infrastructure needs to be improved a lot; our national players still practice on muddy grounds. When they are taken to other Asian countries, where grounds are well maintained, we tend to lose by a narrow margin, as it takes time to adjust to such conditions. Indian players have never lacked in talent, there is lack of proper grounds, training infrastructure and coaching facilities. Salt Lake City, one of the world’s largest stadiums with a capacity of 1, 20,000 is the only stadium, along with Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, which can boast of these facilities. So for a country of 1.24 billion people, all we have are two stadiums with the basic amenities. We need at least 18 such stadiums and hundreds of academies

Interest can also be called passion, to drive an individual to the top. Football is played with great vigour in states like West Bengal, Manipur, Assam, Goa and the interest is massive. Euro 2012 got a viewership of 19.5 million, which is 10% more than the previous tournament. Students from colleges, school follow various European teams week in, week out and have their loyalties set.

It is often said that individuals are never bigger than the game. But apart from these three I’s, there is another ‘I’ is Individual. One individual can change the way football is perceived and can carry the burden of 1.24 billion people on to the football field.

What we need is that one individual to make us believe again. Like the great Dhyanchand brought about the change in field hockey, like Kapil Dev did by leading a the cricket team to World Cup glory in 1983, like Vishwanathan Anand bought about the change the way chess is perceived, like Gopichand to badminton and many other sporting heroes, football needs its own hero now.

Every sport has a golden period. We had our golden period from 1950 to 1960’s with the likes of Mohammed Salim, Sailendra Nath Manna, Neville D’souza, P K Banerjee, and Jarnail Singh amongst others. I.M. Vijayan and Baichung Bhutia, were individually great players.

Now what we need is a similar period, when a talented crop of youngsters come together, led by an individual who can carry the hopes of the people on his shoulders and bring India on the map of world football again.

“Reach high, for the stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal”.