During and after the recently concluded World Cup Football tournament in South Africa, a hot debate was on as where do India stand in world Football? If small and poor countries like Nigeria, Slovenia, Serbia Ghana, Ivory Coast and Honduras were able to felt their presence in the just concluded biggest sports mela on earth in South Africa, why a big developing nation like India couldn’t make it . The smallest country which took part in the event was Slovenia with population of just around two million people.Sports analysts, football pundits and critics have put discussions around, articles written about it, debates held on television and radio about India’s international football status and football lovers in India flew their interest to make Facebook discussion crowded over internet during last many days.
Online, networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have seen some of the top Bollywood stars adding their thoughts on events in South Africa. Bollywood star Sharukh Khan was supporting Germany. Heartbroken, he tweeted: "Germany my team lost...feel bad taking my lil ones to matches where our team loses..."
Some celebrities say like “ Kaash bharat ki team bhi world cup mein hoti to kitna mazza aata”
Many interesting inputs during the online discussions over different via- media could make an impact over the issue, if taken seriously by the authorities of the game.
Sorry to say that the country has so far never made to the biggest sporting event of the world “ World Cup Football”. The fact is that football is the only global sport with 208 nations and territories as members in FIFA with another dozen countries and territories wanting to be part of the global football family. So it has become more difficult to qualify for a football World Cup with the qualifiers in Asia amongst the toughest with only four direct spots available amongst 46 Asian nations.
Amongst Asian countries North Korea was one among 32 teams in the recently concluded World Cup Football held in South Africa and that India’s records against reveals that the team isn’t that much better than Indian national team, but still they could made it to the maga event at South Africa.
History Says:
India has never played in a football World Cup and haven’t qualified for it, but was invited to one. In 1950 FIFA invited India to be play in the World Cup played in Brazil. The world football governing body was willing to pay for the flights and it would have been Delhi via Amsterdam to Rio de Janeiro tickets with KLM. But the then AIFF administration decided against sending a team as FIFA made it mandatory in 1950 to wear football boots. Indians in those days used to play barefoot and such a change would have hampered the teams performance. At least it is the thinking which was prevalent amongst the authorities. The players weren’t asked and the AIFF declined the invitation. Another version of the history is that India was playing barefooted with reasonable ball skills and it actually qualified for the World Cup in Brazil in 1950 - the only time it has done so. But lack of foreign exchange, the prospects of a long sea journey and an insistence on playing barefoot meant that the team never made it to Brazil.
Had India participated then, it could today at least say, we have taken part in the 1950 World Cup. Plus in those days football wasn’t as competitive as it is today, so India might have pulled off the one or the other surprise. And who knows where our football might be today. We might have taken a similar route like Brazil did in the following years and we would have been amongst the best in the world.
A million dollar question arises as why does a country of a billion people with a red hot economy fail to produce a football side which qualifies for the World Cup?
India's ranking in world football is a miserable 133. To put this into perspective small states like , Burkina Faso, Benin, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Haiti and Fiji rank higher.
India can take solace in some backbencher consolation that others in its neighbourhood are doing worse: Bangladesh (157), Sri Lanka (159), Nepal (161), Pakistan (165) and Bhutan (196). This is truly the bottom heap of the 202 football playing nations in the world.
It wasn't always like this:
India even picked up the gold in football in the first Asian Games in 1951, beating a suitably booted Iran by a solitary goal. In 1956, after having put on its boots, India reached the semi-final in Olympics football, the first Asian country to do so. It stood fourth in the tournament. In 1962, India again picked up the football gold in the Asian Games.
Thereafter it was all downhill. India never qualified for the Olympics after 1960. It picked up a bronze in the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok, described by commentators as "the swan song of Indian football".
So why can't a country where a third of its population is under 14 years of age - a nursery of potential footballers - with a long history of club football can't put together 11 young men who can kick ball and take it to the World Cup?
There are many obvious reasons one could pinpoint. The game , like most things in India, is run by politicians, who have wrested control of most sports - the chief of the football federation now is the federal aviation minister. Lack of professionalism, cronyism, indifference and politicisation is not letting the game thrive. The sponsors are also indifferent because the quality of the game is appalling.
In retrospect, it would appear that India was never serious about football the way it was about cricket. The All India Football Federation, which runs the game in India, was formed in 1937, but took more than a decade to get affiliated with FIFA, the world's apex football body.
There have been occasional bursts of hope followed by darkness again. India's only football icon of sorts is a not-so-young player called Baichung Bhutia from the small north-eastern state of Sikkim. He was the first Indian player to sign up with an European Club and had an indifferent three-year stint in the third tier of the English league. Bhutia brought some glamour and respect back to the game in India, but what can one player do? Half a dozen foreign coaches have been hired over the years to whip the national side into a competitive outfit, but nothing much has happened.
What the critics Say:
“Today there is a great confusion whether hockey is our national game or not. The Indians have totally sidelined other sports except cricket. Cricket is deemed a religion in our country. Why are the cricketers given cashewnuts and football players peanuts?” says, a Karnatka based sports journalist Dhanashree Kumar. The Indian media is also responsible for this it doesn’t give coverage of football.
“India will definitely qualify for the worldcup, if Indian politicians leave the chair of Football Association higher posts”, says Somashekar over facebook chat.
Amit Gupta, a sports reporter from Hyderabad says “Everyone wants to see India qualify for world cup. I have seen many fans saying India will qualify for 2018 world cup. But they also say that hard Work, passion, dedication is required for it.We need to have long term plans with short term goals. Improve grass roots to qualify for U-17 WC,U-20 WC, Olympics etc and then dream about India in World Cup. If we cannot have such plans then India can’t even cross 2 round of WCQ”
Broader Impact:
There is an old proverb in India: "Padhoge Likhoge to banoge nawab, kheloge koodoge to banoge kharab." It means that if you study properly you will be successful in life, but on the other hand if you play too much you will simply waste your life. This mentality has contributed to India's poor performance in sports. And it is probably why India has made an impact on the world map more as a country which has produced more software professionals, doctors, engineers etc. rather than as a nation of sportsmen.
Before a Cricket World Cup win in 1983, India's other major sporting victory was in 1975 when the national field hockey team won the World Cup. With the beginning of European countries' domination in hockey, Indian Cricket World Cup triumph in 1983 gave the nation something new to cheer for. Cricket picked up the pace in India and world class players like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar helped in boosting the popularity of game.
Football, was a once popular game but has now fallen into a vicious cycle. It needs funds to attract the talent and popularize the sport, but to attract sponsors they need a team with which the sponsors would like to associate themselves. It needs proper infrastructure and introduction of leagues at school level, it demands commitment and zeal of all state Associations and a well-knit sports policy at government level and above all a lesson from other small and poor nations that would motivate our youth towards the game.
A few English Premier League teams like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have initiated some talent hunt schemes in India - a sign that the nation may yet produce some world class footballing talent.
Only funds can’t help the country football and if only funds would have some impact over, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last year announced to give 250 million rupees (around $5m) to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to improve the condition of football in India, but no fruitful result is before the nation.
(author can be mailed at agowhar6@gmail.com)
