I see a lot of similarities between the A-League and the ISL: Mumbai City head coach Des Buckingham

The Indian Super League (ISL) has been around since 2014, and it has, from when it started, become a much bigger and better top-flight league. Teams are getting more rest, the ISL season is much longer, and there are more opportunities for players to learn from managers between games.

But whenever the FIFA World Cup comes around, like it did this year, only one question occupies the minds of thousands of football fans in the country. That, if you have not guessed by now, is about when India will feature at the global extravaganza.

Competing at a World Cup, though, takes more than just hope and luck. It needs a proper structure at every possible juncture in the ecosystem and it needs a lot of careful planning – something India have simply not done over the years. Things are improving, courtesy of the ISL, although you could argue that there is still another rung that needs to be scaled before the results become tangible.

In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda, Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham emphasised the need for a bottom-up approach, which obviously involves a clear plan at the grassroots level.

“The most important thing, when I look across the world, and in countries that I have worked in, is there is sort of a national curriculum that provides guidelines for young players’ development. The foundation phase in England is from 5-11 years of age, and that is a very important age. It develops fundamental movement skills, agility, balance, coordination - not just in footballers – everything that helps them in life.

So that football curriculum based around those principles, alongside the football skills that makes them fall in love with the game and hopefully keeps them in the game. For me, it is important we have an understanding and something like that is a good starting point,” he said.

This, by the way, does not just involve creating programs but also following through with it, offering plenty of clarity to both coaches and other concerned stakeholders, with respect to the direction being traversed.

“A very clear national curriculum plan across grassroots - what players should and should not be doing, how many times they should be training and what they should be doing in those sessions. That then drip-feeds into coaches, the upskill of the coaches and the qualifications to give players the age-specific content they need,” the Mumbai City FC manager added.

The ISL began in 2014 - nine years after the A-League

The knock-on effects on these would then be felt on the ISL, with teams such as Mumbai City FC also doing their best by having age-group teams that get regular exposure playing a set number of games. The A-League, which also started not very long ago, has often been looked at as the gold standard in Asia, considering how quickly they have reached the highest echelon. And Buckingham, who worked five and a half years in the country, says there are quite a few similarities between the A-League and the ISL.

“You look back at what the ISL was – it was a two-three-month league. Compare that to last season. We (Mumbai City FC) started in September and coupled with the Champions League, we finished in April. I look at the A-League, having had the privilege of working there and the ISL, and I see a lot of similarities (with the ISL). The A-League is nine years further on than the ISL but has developed in a very similar manner and that has been through playing more games. When you compare players in India and Australia to the number of games other players play in other continents, we are still far behind,” the Mumbai City FC head coach commented.

One aspect where Australia has perhaps stolen a march is that they have had a proper system in place for their players, wherein the players congregate at designated centres, playing and learning together. That, apart from giving them the right environment to flourish, also lets them grow tactically and think for themselves – something that India still lacks a little in.

“When we talk about Australia, they had these National Schools of Excellence where they brought all the best together, trained them together and played them together. What I sometimes found here is players need to be told what to do and then they try to do it as well as they can.

What we have tried here (at Mumbai City FC) is to involve the players in understanding what we are doing. They can check and challenge themselves, contribute to meetings. If they learn it, they can keep developing. If they are just told – it is the same as everything else in life, you may remember it for a day or two but can forget later. Learning these things helps that information stick,” he added.

This directly ties into the amount of information young footballers have access to these days. Because of social media and how global the game is, there is no shortage of video footage. Owing to the new format, any football watcher in India has the luxury of tuning into an ISL game four times a week (at least).

Football simulation games are also as advanced as they have ever been, and give players a chance to learn on their own. So, if they have the appetite to learn, there is plenty of potential to be tapped in to – a facet that will directly improve the tactical awareness of players coming through the ranks. That, though, is contingent on the manager finding the right way to harness it.

“People know now more than they have ever done. Young players now are more inquisitive about the game. They have so much more information than, say, 10 years ago, whether it is through Xbox, PlayStation, FIFA or watching games. I think the opportunity to tap into that, explore that and harness that is so powerful.

They might not understand what a team wants tactically. For example, there might be five steps to do something. They may know the first, second, third and fifth – they might be missing the fourth. You add that and then it links together. Those experiences can come from anywhere and it is the coach’s job to find out what they exactly need,” Buckingham told Sportskeeda.

So, the brief, for whoever wants to unlock India’s footballing potential is pretty clear. The work must be performed in a bottom-up approach, with most concentration being given to the grassroots programs. The ISL, because it is the country’s top-flight division, will provide exposure. But unless the work starts well below it, it will not magically change India’s fortunes.

And that is what perhaps explains this discrepancy. Whenever people talk about the national team, they say it has not really benefited as such, despite the ISL beginning in 2014. What they probably don’t know is that it takes a long time to develop a system that keeps churning out players. Add to that how much mud-slinging the AIFF and the other concerned bodies have indulged in, and you understand why India have stagnated a little.

All is not lost, however. According to those in power, they have a roadmap for Indian football. For now, all we can do is believe them and hope that they can lay the foundation to a better future. If they are looking for ideas, not many have outlined them as clearly and as vividly as Buckingham, and all they need to do is glance through this quickly.

Otherwise, the roadmap will continue to be a piece of paper. And the FIFA World Cup, or any tangible development of the Indian national team, will continue to be a myth.