The surge of football in India: A bright future ahead?

Football, a global sport, is more than just a sport for more than 3 billion people who watch it. Football, as quoted by millions is an emotion that brings joy among the people who witness it.

The sport is widely played in more than 205 countries and this year's World Cup (World Cup 2018, Russia) had a record viewership. Football has always bought joy, passion and a sense of oneness among the fans. The sport has not only been an emotion but also a medium which has helped the country, state or a city hosting it by helping raise a lot of funds through the tourism aspects of it as well.

A sport of that magnitude can boost the economy of a country, help the country be on a global map and one simple question that always triggers my mind is, Why didn't India, one of the world's highly populated country get its name dented on a global map of football? India, a country with 1.2 billion people is nowhere seen as a country that celebrates the game of football as much as it does for cricket.

When we talk about sports in India, we mean cricket, just cricket. A couple of years ago there was no one who would even bother to buy tickets for a football match or an event apart from the few passionate fans. Today, with the influx of ISL (Indian Super League) and influence of social media with influencers promoting football and reaching out to their fans by urging them to buy tickets for a football match has had a positive impact on Indian football.

But the rise of football in India was long ago when a club called Mohun Bagan, established around the 1890s, which became the first Indian team to win IFA (Indian Football Association) Shield before Indian independence. Football was meandering around with no defined path to follow, which no one noticed.

Indian Football gained a spotlight when they qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. It still tinkers our mind on why the Indian football team didn't play the tournament. After that, we haven't even come close to qualifying for the World Cup.

It was the late 2000s when the Indian football team scored big. In August 2007, India won its first Nehru Cup beating Syria 1-0 in the finals. Now, the spotlight was on the young brigade of Indian football. They lived up to the expectations when they won AFC Challenge Cup in August 2008 and as they say, history repeats. India again beat Syria in 2009 Nehru Cup final. These wins put a hope in Indians that the Indian football team could now be seen on a global map in football.

With the introduction of ISL, Indian football was now the talk of the town. We saw Indians sprawl near the ticketing counter to get tickets to the matches of their favourite ISL team and that's continuing till date.

The introduction of IPL (Indian Premier League) which had teams named after major Indian cities caught the attention of every Indian and people belonging to the respective cities started to support their favourite franchise. With the same concept, ISL targeted the Indians with something we all connect a lot emotionally, our cities.

ISL became a sudden hit and our players got the spotlight and even their social media presence had a sudden upsurge and fans loved to see their favourite players insight. ISL which was started in 2014 in partnership with Reliance Industries has come a long way and has achieved many milestones.

The Indian football team which played against Jordan last week

Indian football has had a great history and history has so many lessons to learn. India till today is the sleeping giant of world football, the talent is yet to be explored and we need a platform, exposure and academies that would encourage the youngsters to consider taking football professionally.

The current scenario looks bright for the future of Indian football. The matches are being conducted on regular basis, people are buying tickets and fans are getting to know players in different platforms. We just hope and wish India to soon qualify for the World Cup and with everything we have, India has the potential to step up to that challenge.