Football and India (Part 1)

Imagine the situation. 2014 Football World Cup Quarter Finals; Venue: Maracana Stadium; India leading Brazil 1-0 at half time. How amazing it would have been for Indian football lovers like me to support our country for a change at the World Cup instead of watching other countries sweating it out to win the World Cup. How incredible it would have been if we had a football league like the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga in India where supporters are left spellbound by the quality in display, day in and day out. How scintillating it would have been if we had a Sachin Tendulkar in Indian football who would enthrall every football fan across the globe. But sad reality is that these fantasies may not see the light even in the near future as India’s rank speaks for itself, World Rank of 145 and Asia Rank of 24.

So how is it that a country with a population of 1.2 billion cannot even produce 11 world class footballers? We can give an excuse that even China with its vast population is pathetic in football. However unlike China, who is a sporting superpower in almost every other sport, India is good only in Cricket and to some extent in Badminton. However the scenario of Indian football was not like this in the past. There was a time when India won gold medals in football at the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games, and finished fourth at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. India had also qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals though for some bizarre reasons India could not participate in it. 1951–1962 is usually considered as "golden phase" of Indian football.

But from then on the deterioration started and India’s last notable performance in an international tournament was in 1970 Asian Games, when it won the bronze medal. However after that Indian football has gone into a deep slumber from which it has not been able to rise up.

Then in 2011, there was a false hope that Indian football team is finally improving when they qualified for the Asian Cup for the first time in 24 years. However after watching how India got annihilated in the group stage by South Korea, Australia, and Bahrain, we have realized that there is still a very long way to go to reach the level of Indian football of the 1950’s.

To be continued…