Five reasons for India's 2018 World Cup qualifying debacle

India is not a nation known for its prowess in football, and that is an accepted fact among the general public. However, the entire country was shocked after India’s fifth straight defeat which left them languishing at the bottom of their Group D in the World Cup Qualifiers, with a grand total of zero points and a negative goal difference of 9.Simply put, qualification hopes for Russia 2018 are over.In this slideshow, we will analyze a few reasons for this debacle.

#1 Grassroots

Manchester United’s fabled Class of ’92 and Barcelona’s La Masia graduates who helped them lift the treble in 2009 are just two of many shining examples of the dividends that football academies has reaped. The outrageous fees top clubs pay for teenagers (read Martin Odegaard and Anthony Martial) prove that world-class footballers have to be developed at a very early age.

There are very few sports where exceptional talent has come from sportspersons who take to that game at a comparatively later age, say after 12-13 years of age.

Slowly, players and administration alike have shifted their focus to the grassroots, especially since the onset of the Indian Super League. However, apart from Kolkata and Goa, most states have awareness programs for merely 3-4 days a year. These might help stir up interest and encourage a healthy, active lifestyle, but they will not help in developing kids into world-class talent that we need.

More concerted efforts along the lines of our European counterparts are the need of the hour.

#2 Administration and Media

While the mainstream media broadcasts ISL matches in as many as three different languages and even lower-league English football, there was no trace of the Indian WC Qualifiers. The official broadcaster mysteriously stopped broadcasting the matches after the first match, only to resume on October 13th citing a mismatch between broadcasting rights of different countries.

It is quite perplexing to figure out how the ‘sleeping giant’ that is Indian football, as termed by Sepp Blatter, will garner the support it needs from the masses if the only live coverage of the matches is through Indian football’s governing body, AIFF’s Twitter handle.

While the media was describing the 2-1 defeat at the hands of Guam, a tiny island on the Pacific Ocean, a dark day in Indian football, head coach Stephen Constantine was quick to dismiss the idea, citing the fact that the Guam team had 6 players of American origin who played in the MLS.

This came at the time when the naturalization debate was churning, with the coach requesting the administration to allow foreign players of Indian origin such as Michael Chopra of England, Luciano Narsingh of Netherlands and Harmeet Singh of Norway to play for India. Predictably, this idea was summarily dismissed.

#3 International friendlies are key for Indian football

Between January 2014 and August 2015, the Indian National team played on 6 games. A woefully low number especially when placed in contrast to Iran's 19 or Oman's staggering 25 games played during that same period.

It's a major issue to be addressed, especially since the result of playing so many additional games for the other teams was evident on the pitch. It brought those teams together as they showed much more team chemistry than the Blue TIgers could possibly have had with only 6 games under their belt, those too scattered over the period of more than a year.

Even India’s highest goal scorer Sunil Chhetri highlighted this issues while speaking to Sportskeeda. He said, “We really should play more friendlies. That way, the team will gel better and perform more consistently. Also, our rankings won't dip if we play regularly.”

#4 Lack of practice and low self-confidence of players

While Sunil Chhetri spoke after the game against Turkmenistan citing lack of preparation as a factor, it cannot be the sole reason for such a capitulation. Surely, it is an important factor as gelling again after a gap with your teammates requires time. What lends more credence to this fact is the number of friendlies the team has played.

Guam, in Indias group, had played more friendlies than India. Oman, also in our group, had gone toe-to-toe with teams like Republic of Ireland, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Finland. Iran had even taken on the likes of Chile,Swedenand Japan. You cannot expect to qualify for the World Cup without having such opportunities for testing yourself and improving.

However, as John Arne Riise of Delhi Dynamos pointed out, there also a mentality issue with the Blue Tigers. He points out that though our footballers are talented, they need to be tough and not shy. It makes perfectsensebecause going through the grind at the top level of international sport requires you to have that frame of mind to survive.

Further, David Platt of FC Pune City pointed out that the youngsters are afraid of making mistakes. Such a mindset will not take things forward even if we have all the facilities, and it must be addressed at once.

#5 Fan support

Fans are the lifeforce of any sport and the roaring crowds lift the players spirits and charges them withabilitywhich was erstwhile not present. Adding on the previous point of mentality, us Indians should try and get behind our footballers the same way as we do for our cricketers. It is not as if football is not popular in our country, leading to a lack of supportbut, on the contrary,many youngsters are very passionate about theirfavouritenational teams and European clubs.

Much is made on the internet about Kerala being Indias Borussia Dortmund in terms of the sheer number of fans that flock to every home match of the Kerala Blasters, but what is equally evident is that the I-League barely has any attendance apart from the derbies.

The truth is that most youngsters would rather watch club football or take time out to visit the stadium for the ISL and not for the I-League or Indian matches. They are not entirely to be blamed for thisscenariobecause a lot needs to be changed in Indian football to avoid this sort ofdebacles in the future. Because if things stay the way they are, the only plausible way of seeing India in a World Cupwould be for us to host the competition.