Indian football - problems and solutions

The Indian Football Team – the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games gold medalists and 1956 Olympic semi finalists – is now ranked 167th in the FIFA World rankings. They have never made it to a single FIFA World Cup. In 1950, India was invited to play the 4th World Cup but they could not take part as FIFA did not allow Indian players to play barefooted. Now, India is already out of the 2014 World Cup.

It is very disappointing that a nation like India can’t prepare a team who are eligible to play the World Cup. AIFF, the governing body of Indian Football, keeps saying that the rank does not reflect the quality, and that they are much better than that.

They say that Indian Football is developing and Indian Football team will definitely make it to the 2022 World Cup if not in 2018. India can also be the host of 2017 U-17 World Cup.

Everyone is expected to keep faith in AIFF and keep supporting the team. But where is the development ? I-League is still a D-Grade league with no proper routine. India is suffering from lack of good grounds. And above all, the lack of support is slowly killing the game.

Indians are busy with cricket which has no global value. They have no belief in the football Team. Many people love football, watch the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, UEFA competitions, the World Cup but they ignore Indian Football. They say that India will never make it to the World Cup. There are only three states in India where people are crazy about football – West Bengal, Goa and Kerala. Only 12 states have a regular league.

Lack of quality footballers is also a big issue. There are some good footballers but the team’s morale is very low. They are winning multinational tournaments in home but facing failure on foreign soil again and again. They have to play more and more international matches . The clubs will have to be always ready to make the players available for national duty.

The development is needed immediately and the AIFF has to work hard. The first thing to do is to popularize football in India. The reach of AIFF is still limited. They have to expand their reach. Organizing an IPL-type football tournament can be great. Good sponsorship is needed for it. If popularity increases, sponsors will come forward. Starting district level football tournaments is a good option. More matches, more players, more spectators can make Indian football healthy. All the states should have a regular football league. More importance should be given to the Subrata Cup (inter school) and Santosh Trophy (inter state). Above all, AIFF should have a certain calender.

The Indian Government should look into the matter seriously. They have to take necessary steps. We often see national level football matches having no live telecast. These matches can be shown on DD Sports. Indian News channels can be helpful. They should cover football, which they rarely do. They have to remember that cricket is not the only sport in India.

At last, it must be said that if all of India cheers for the football team, they can never be failure.