Indian football at FIFA World cup, how far are we ?

It has been a question since a while – When will the world’s second largest populated nation finally make it into the World Cup? Even after having exorbitant human resources, it’s a doleful fact to digest that India is still amongst the weakest nations in football. Despairingly, the country is ranked at the 168th position in the latest FIFA rankings, with a petite 38 position gap to the bottom. India today is exactly 164 positions below Uruguay, a country with an almost identical population to that of Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Football in India today is miles from the FIFA World Cup, a distant dream which has no possibility whatsoever of recent fulfilment. One of the best serving coaches of India aptly described that footballers in India are considered to be third grade citizens, parents in this country don’t dare to think of football as a career to their children. He also quoted that Indian football can only breakthrough via large influx of capital and a proper domestic league system. If things remain as they are, FIFA World cup will always remain an insurmountable task.

The time has come to find solutions to why India can’t do it today. There are a few obstacles in the journey towards the World Cup but that doesn’t mean we lose hope. Things are to be sorted out so that we don’t post articles showcasing the disability of Indian football. Let us look at the five ways that how Indian football can make it through to FIFA World cup -

1. Proper scouting of talents

I would completely disagree with someone saying that India don’t produce footballers. A Hindi proverb says “Dhoondne se to bhagwan bhi mil jata hai” (If you endeavour, you can find the all mighty), Why can’t we produce 11 footballers from a population of 1,210,193,422 ? We need to start scouting programmes so that proper talents across the country are spotted and nourished into proper footballers. Even a descent survey in the 28 states could easily find you 5,000 pros.

2. Infrastructure development

Sadly, Indian football team’s hub stadium isn’t even ranked under the FIFA rankings for stadia. Infrastructure is perhaps the most important reason behind the inability of football in the country. In most of the stadiums in India, the pitches have brown patches, which is not good for sliding tackles as it may injure a player. Also the grass is too thin, often absent in certain patches and is a real factor in our players not being able to adapt well on foreign soil, since they are so used to the bouncing of the ball rather than it staying put on the surface.

3. Follow the model of Cote de Ivory

India could like at few nations for inspiration and the perfect choice could be Ivory coast. A country under the threat of Civil war and amongst the poorest nations in the world is probably today amongst the strongest in Africa. The basic reason why a country ranked 70th in 2004 moved almost 60 places above was due to the revolution initiated by one who they call King Drogba, Didier Drogba. Today young kids in the Ivory Coast take inspiration from him and dream to follow him. Today Ivory coast has produced players like Toure brothers, Kalou and Gervinho. I won’t be amused if the next-generation team becomes number one.

4. A football federation headed by footballers

I don’t expect a bureaucrat to head the footballing association in a country. Only people who have in-depth knowledge about the subject of football should be pinned down to lead the association. This would be an auxiliary in development of football, a development not driven by political factors.

Reliance IMG initiative for FIFA world cup and Wim Kovermans.

Reliance and IMG initiative was set up for football evolution and development in India, an initiative which aims towards making India a part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. More popularly known as “Vision 2026″, it provides necessary monitory aids to try to ensure qualification into FIFA world cup 2026.

Wim Kovermans, the new boss, applauded the programme and believes it is a convincing initiative. He believed that building international class academy in Vadodara will definitely help in the realisation of the goals. He believed that in the last few years country had been taking right steps in the development of the games.