Football, Women and India: Past, Present and Future

It is pretty evident that India has been a land of sports but to be true, sport here only refers to Cricket. In this land, obsessed with the gentleman’s game, it is no longer a surprise that Football is nothing but just a ‘poor cousin’. Its not that people here are not aware of football. On the contrary, we have a massive football fan base in our country. But since they don’t get much local football to watch, their loyalties are limited to European Clubs. I, myself, support one.

With the formation of I-League, the Richie football followers have started investing in the game but all it goes is for the Men’s game. Time and again, India has discriminated in the field of sports and Football is no different. The viewer ship has definitely increased with the major sports network show casing Men’s football but I, personally, have never witnessed a single woman from India, presenting her Football skills on television.

With FIFA’s affiliation, the Women’s team was formed in India in 1948. Soon after its formation, Indian women put in some amazing performances in AFC Asian Cup and in various World Cup qualifiers. It, however, went bad with time.You can all imagine the miserable condition that Indian Women football is in from the fact that the team did not play for a long term of 3 years (October 2007 to November 2010). They finally geared themselves in March2011 and began the new chapter of improvement. Indian women participated in World Cup qualifiers earlier this year and in the first match they beat group rival and host Bangladesh 3-0. Later they tied 1-1 to Uzbekistan before getting knocked out after a 5-1 defeat in the second leg.

How did it all start?

It has been forty years now that women have been taking part in the beautiful game. In 1975, women finally stood for themselves and took the administration in their own hands and thus Women’s Football Federation of India (WFFI) was formed. They began in a great fashion and finished on the podium thrice, back to back, from 1979-1985 in the Asian Cup leading to a great surprise, more of a shock, to the mass population the country. It was something even the men had failed to achieve. In spite of the lack of interest and mass following, women continued putting in impressive performances in 70s and 80s.

Being a host of Asian Cup in ’79, India managed to reach the Finals but with some bad luck and below standard play, we lost to Mulan Taipei.

Then came the 80’s, the era of television and yes, CRICKET. With Kapil Dev bringing home the World Cup in ’83, which was much of a surprise, Cricket became the life and soul of India. With increase in the viewer ship of the gentleman’s game, it was obvious that Football’s viewer ship plummeted. Forget WFFI, even AIFF’s marketing became negligible.

It won’t be an understatement to say that Women Football in India turned shameful.

The poor management continued and despite impressive performances at Asian levels, the game vanished by the end of 80s. Financial and moral support was much required in 90s if the women team were to continue. But again AIFF intervened and decided to take the case in their hands.

It has been repeatedly said by the AIFF that their main motto is Women Football but action speaks louder than words and well, it is all out in the open. Women Football is being treated like an extra burden. It can be proved by the fact that the first official foreign trip, to Germany in 1997, was sponsored by German Football Associations and NRI’s in the European Nation.

The 12 day tour proved to be a huge morale boost for the ladies who performed exceptionally well in the ’97 Asian Cup which was also the World Cup qualifier. The team defeated Guam with an impressive score of 10-0 and Hong Kong by 3-0. They finally lost 3-0 to Japan and ended up on the 5th position on the chart and with this they lost their hopes for 1999′s World Cup.

Despite the loss it became clear that, if given World Class facilities, Sky is the limit for these girls.

How did it go low?

Although it was consistently going down over the period of time, the major drop in Indian Women Football happened around November 2009, when FIFA de-listed Indian Football Women’s Team from World Ranking as they had not played any international event for almost 18 months. They eventually came back on the list in end of 2010.

The ladies were sweating it all out on the training ground. But with inactive participation and less following, even the AIFF did not pay attention to the pathetic condition of Women’s team. It is a matter of shame that even after being established for so long, the team is going down.

India and Ethics:

India has been a land where women are bound to be house makers and generally are avoided to be sent out for work. Although the culture has been revised but still, opting sports for living is taboo in many parts of the country. That too for a game like Football that promises no future and living. Unthinkable.!

Moreover, girls here drool over a footballer’s hot personality but they hardly follow the sport. It is a shame that we take no necessary steps to provoke women to join this holy game. Those who enter the field of sports from the big cities are joining Tennis, Swimming, Squash etc. Women have also been constantly ignoring participation in the game because they find it too manly for their chick nature.

Nothing is complete without exceptions:

With people against the legacy of women playing, some men do support the game and it’s good. Girls have started following clubs like Barcelona and Manchester United etc and this surely promise a good interest in the future. It is not like we live in Afghanistan, I don’t believe we should stay home all the time. Movie like “Bend it like Beckham” show how passion for the game can overturn your entire life.

Hope is the reason of surviving:

After being disappointed by AIFF again and again, Kolkata based Football club Mohan Bagan finally made it their chief aim to promote Women Football. In 2001, East Bengal Club and Mohun Bagan entered their women’s team into “The Calcutta Women’s League”, India’s oldest women football league, set up in 1993. Women from East showcased superb skills and have won 13 out of 19 finals thus far. Orissa, Manipur and West Bengal were a pleasure to watch with girls outplaying the opposite sex. Girls have time and again proved their quality and worth.

Many young ladies have been beautiful at the ground. Sujata Kar and Alpana Sil became the first women to be selected by International Club in Germany. Oniam Bembem, from Manipur, started her carrier at 15 and scored more than 50 goals internationally.

Indian women have proved, on various occasions, that they have the capabilities and skills to demoralize their rivals buy their swift game. If they get the proper handling and are no more considered a burden, they have the pure class of outplaying champions, one day. MY GAME, MY LOVE FOOTBALL!!